Harvey Fite’s medium was stone. He worked here with chisels and hammers and pullies and ropes and muscle, and a brain that made sense of a once-abandoned bluestone quarry. He created Opus 40, one of the great works of art of the 20th Century.
As a child growing up nearby in upstate New York, I got to play in this place. This week, taking a couple of days holiday, I came back and re-discovered what an astonishing place it is.
The digital age is a wonderful thing. But the real world of Opus 40 and its like reminds me: What great artists do with their hands is still more powerful than anything we’ve done online, by far.
on Jul 20th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
There’s a great documentary on the artist Andy Goldsworthy, who does similar, mostly stone-based, environmental art with materials found onsite. It’s available via Netflix. Highly recommended if you like this sort of work.