So this gorgeous Saturday saw us spend a lovely 2 hours in the warm autumn sunshine as my weekly Wednesday night Art class broke with tradition and met on location (!!!) in person (!!!) at PepsiCo’s World Headquarters in Purchase. Several devoted souls even jumped onto Zoom to try a spotty virtual experience. Why, you ask, did we switch it up this past weekend? Because the David M Kendall Sculpture garden was calling to us!
Picture this. The year -1965. The occasion- PepsiCo relocates its HQ out of the city to what was still mostly undeveloped forest and farmland, (Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s “cultural gem of the SUNY system” SUNY Purchase wouldn’t open officially until two years later in 1967 right across the street).
Donald M. Kendall, Chairman and CEO at the time, saw the former polo field as the perfect location for a new corporate cultural environment. He wanted to integrate three different art forms – architecture, landscape architecture, and large-scale modern sculpture
Kendall set PepsiCo on a path that has continued to value and share the fine arts in its continued role as corporate patron, public benefactor, critic, and connoisseur.
(photo courtesy J.Miller)
As we observed Saturday, Russell Page’s five year plan that extended the original landscape design has bloomed and grown into a visual delight in its own right.
Carefully planned concepts of form, color and texture are carefully planned so that various elements of the landscape constantly change as the seasons progress. Page used a living palette – trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, giving us an organic variety of colors, shapes and scents. These serve as a gorgeous setting for large scale contemporary sculptures by sone of the world’s most important artists.
So, into this setting we explored some of the art world’s heaviest hitters, including Pomodoro, Hepworth, Wynne, Dubuffet, Moore, Calder & Rodin.
Come back here Wednesday night for my post that goes into greater depth on the artists and works we explored.
Meanwhile- be well & C’è vediamo!
profvalfranco 