Monika Grzymala’s Volumen Paper Cloud Installed at the Morgan Library
New York, NY, July 18, 2013—Berlin-based artist Monika Grzymala has completed Volumen, her large-scale installation at the Morgan Library & Museum. The work opens to the public tomorrow and will remain on view through November 3, 2013.
Volumen is composed of five thousand irregular sheets of paper handmade by the artist with mulberry fiber in her Berlin studio. Three thousand shimmering white sheets are combined with two thousand sheets printed with images from the Morgan’s collections of literary, music, and historical manuscripts.
The sheets are connected to hundreds of strands of bookbinding yarn suspended from a nearly invisible net of monofilament line hanging from the ceiling of the museum’s glass-enclosed, 50-foot-high Gilbert Court. The longest of the strands have been gathered by the artist and pulled diagonally towards the south side of the Court, near the entrance to Pierpont Morgan’s iconic 1906 library. The pages that reproduce manuscripts from the Morgan’s collections—concentrated near the library—gradually blend with the white sheets of paper, creating a cloud-like sculpture totaling one thousand cubic meters or 36,615 cubic feet.
MONIKA GRZYMALA
Monika Grzymala (German, b. 1970 in Poland) is celebrated for her site-specific works that are grounded in drawing but expand into three dimensions. The artist works with ephemeral materials—including tape, handmade paper, and objects found locally—to create site-specific, temporary, and ephemeral “architectural interventions” based on the vocabulary of line.
Grzymala has participated in many international group exhibitions, including On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2010. Her solo exhibitions and site-specific projects have taken place throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Between 2008 and 2010 Grzymala created two large-scale installations with handmade Washi paper titled Up There Up Here for a private residence in Manhattan. She will soon begin work on another site-specific commission, a sculpture garden for the rooftop of the Woodner Company building in New York City.
PUBLIC PROGRAM
Artist Talk
Monika Grzymala
Friday, July 19, 7 pm
Monika Grzymala will discuss her installation and creative process with Isabelle Dervaux, Acquavella Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings.
Free; Advance reservation suggested.
tickets@themorgan.org; 212-685-0008 x560
The Morgan Library & Museum
The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. Today, more than a century after its founding in 1906, the Morgan serves as a museum, independent research library, musical venue, architectural landmark, and historic site. In October 2010, the Morgan completed the first-ever restoration of its original McKim building, Pierpont Morgan’s private library, and the core of the institution. In tandem with the 2006 expansion project by architect Renzo Piano, the Morgan now provides visitors unprecedented access to its world-renowned collections of drawings, literary and historical manuscripts, musical scores, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, printed books, and ancient Near Eastern seals and tablets.
General Information
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016-3405
212.685.0008
Just a short walk from Grand Central and Penn Station
Hours
Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; extended Friday hours, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Mondays, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. The Morgan closes at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Admission
$18 for adults; $12 for students, seniors (65 and over), and children (under 16); free to Members and children 12 and under accompanied by an adult. Admission is free on Fridays from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is not required to visit the Morgan Shop and Café.
