Terry Fugate-Wilcox
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Fugate-Wilcox (1944- ) known both as "Tery" and as "Terry" Fugate-Wilcox, an American Conceptual artist, painter, sculptor and Actual Artist; born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Among other works, he created the Jean Freeman Gallery, widely accepted as the conceptual artwork that ended conceptual art. In 1971, Terry Fugate-Wilcox donated an "r" to the Irish cause, becoming Tery Fugate Wilcox. (Shortly after, Brian O'Doherty became "Patrick Ireland" in support of the same cause.) After winning a public vote, on the art to be chosen for their neighborhood, Fugate-Wilcox was commissioned to create the sculpture 3000 A.D. Diffusion Piece (1974) in J. Hood Wright Park, in the Washington Heights area of New York City. The sculpture is composed of several stacked and bolted plates of magnesium and aluminum, which Fugate-Wilcox estimates will fuse together at or around the year 3000.
Fugate-Wilcox also created the public sculpture Weathering Concrete Triangle (1984) at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Waverly Place in Manhattan. the work caused a sensation, when it became "criminal art" & the owner of the property, Valerie Monroe Shakespeare was prosecuted in criminal court. She prevailed, as the case was summarily dismissed by the judge, only to find herself facing a million-dollar lawsuit by the same agency of the City of New York. Eventually, the City gave up the suit & the sculpture was moved to the home of a private collector in New Jersey. The following articles covered the conflict: Revenaugh, Mickey."Seventh Avenue", Washington Market Review, August 24,1984, p.4, illust. Revenaugh, Mickey."Art vs. Security" Washington Market Review, Aug 22,1984, p.6 Anderson, Susan & David Bird ."Sculpture& 7th Ave. South," Day by Day, NYTimes, 8/8/84,illust. Bollinger, Ann V. "Woman & Village Square Off in Battle Over Triangle", NY Post,3/21/87 illust. Herzfeld, John. "Tangled Triangle," Art News, December, 1987, p.29, illust. “New York City vs. Valerie Shakespeare over Criminal Art” CBS News December, 1987 "Woman in Million Dollar Lawsuit for Art" Channel 11 News, NYC December, 1987
Founder of Actual Art movement,Actual Art Fugate-Wilcox created 40-foot-tall "Self-Watering Tetrahedrons" at Prudential, Newark, New Jersey, 5 various sized tetrahedrons, in a family grouping, that were imbedded with copper, brass, bronze, steel & iron, just under the surface of the concrete. As water from the built-in fountain flowed over the sculptures, the colors of blue, turquoise, green, ochre & reddish browns migrated up to create patterns on the surface. The work sat in a reflecting pool in the main lobby of Gateway 4, of the Prudential, in Newark New Jersey, until 1996, when Prudential sold the building, the fountain was dismantled by the artist & sold to a private collector.
Current project: San Andreas Fault Sculpture Project, 68,000 tons of concrete spanning the San Andreas Fault near Palm Springs, CA. The work is sponsored by the Actual Art Foundation, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501c-3 organization, founded by Valerie Monroe Shakespeare, in 1982Actual Art. The San Andreas Fault Sculpture Project is supported entirely by donations from art patrons with a desire to establish a deeper more meaningful dialogue with the earth.
The artist is using the energy in the San Andreas Fault to create a work of art near Palm Springs, in the Indio Hills on land owned by the Artist & will be visible from the tram overlooking the area. He is using the force of plate tectonics, (the movement of the continents causing earthquakes & volcanoes, creates mountain ranges, & opens up rifts beneath the sea).
The San Andreas Fault Sculpture Project begins as a solid one-piece, one-acre, block of concrete, placed across the fault. The sculpture will break into two “golden rectangles" shifting past each other at an average rate of 2-3 inches a year. The acre of concrete will weigh 65,000 tons & will loom 20 feet high, 188 feet wide & 232 feet long on the floor the desert. The sculpture will employ low-exothermic air-entrained concrete which has been tested as one of the most durable construction materials known to man. The concrete, seemingly impossible to violate will be torn apart by the power in the Earth, like a piece of tissue paper.
Tery Fugate-Wilcox is using the earth as a tool to make the earth’s energy visible on a scale that can be understood in human terms and vision. The natural forces of the 43-mile deep crack in the earth will divide the massive block, revealing the powerful forces of nature in a positive context, using nature to carve the sculpture. In about 63,000,000 years the west half of the sculpture, (as well as the western half of Clifornia) will be in Alaska.
The project will become a centre for education & information about plate tectonics, earth sciences & environmental concerns. A gallery about the project will be maintained at the site as well as in downtown Palm Springs. The project will be available for use to raise monies for other related causes. There will be access to the top of the sculpture, as it will be allowed for events and fund raising. (chipping golf-balls off the top at say a $1,000 a pop). The site will also be maintained in the spirit of a park. Much has happened in the past to disrupt the surrounding desert and the project intends to restore the desert.
Tery’s work is in the collections of: City of New York, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art NYC, National Gallery of Australia, Albright-Knox Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art, J. Patrick Lannan Foundation, Damson Oil Co., American Council for the Arts, University of Hartford, National Shopping Centers, Western Michigan University, Detroit Institute of Art, Chicago Institute of Art, & several major sculpture installations in NYC, Newark N.J & around the world. His work has been in forty one-person shows, most recently at Shakespeare's Fvlcrvm in SoHo & at Art House, Candlewood Lake Art Center, in Connecticut. His work is in the collections of over 200 art patrons internationally & is a NEA laureate & is listed in Marquis Who's Who, 2008. Tery Fugate-Wilcox is the author of a new book; "It's the Artist's Life for Me!" written with Valerie Monroe Shakespeare, his wife & life partner. Fugate-Wilcox' work has been published in the following books: Abbott, Susan. Fine Art Publicity Allworth Press 2005 Lippard, Lucy. Six Years University of California Publishing 1997 MIT List Visual Arts Center. Clockwork 1989 Gayle, Margot & Michele Cohen. Art Commission & Municipal Art Society Guide to Public Art NYC 1988 Snazey, Susan. Light Abrams Publishing, p. 40, illust. 1986 Ricerche. Modo Ricerche Desiign Enterprises 1986 Norton, Thomas E. & Patterson, Jerry E. Living it Up 1984 Opitz, Glenn B. Dictionary of American Sculptors Dealer’s Choice Books, Inc. 1984 Dixon, Jenny & Jessica Cusick. Ten Years of Public Art, 1972-82, N Y Public Art Fund. 1982 Brentano, Robyn&Mark Savitt.112 Green St: History, Artists & Artworks, NYU press,1981 Fugate-Wilcox, "Slow Burn-Colored Construction Paper", Artwork, 112 Workshop/112 Green St: History, Artists & Artworks NYU Press,1981 Bassett, Hillary. "Painting & Sculpture Today: Contemporary Art Society, Indianapolis Museum of Art.,Ill 1978 Battcock, Gregory. Why Art? E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc. 1977 American Craftsmen’s Council. Craft Horizons 1977 New York State Council on the Arts Annual Report State of New York 1977
External links
- [1]: Books published by or about Tery {Terry) Fugate-Wilcox.
- Beyond Time: an episode of the WNYC radio show Radio Lab that profiles Fugate-Wilcox and the sculpture 3000 AD Diffusion Piece.
- [[2]]: Actual Art Foundation.org
- [[3]]: Shakespeare's Fvlcrvm.com
- [[4]]: San Andreas Fault Sculpture.info
- [[5]]: Fugate-Wilcox.info
- [[6]]: Valerie Monroe Shakespeare.info
- [[7]]: It's the Artist's Life for me.info
- [8]: [A description of 3000 AD Diffusion Piece] from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.