Leo Amino: Sculpture 1945-1974

Catalog of an exhibition of works in cast or machined plastic and carved wood by Japanese/American artist and educator Leo Amino (1911-1989) held at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in the fall of 1985 and based on the 1981 bequest of 50 Leo Amino sculptures to the Museum by the artist’s wife Julie Amino. Published by the Museum, Rutgers, in 1985, with an essay and catolog entries by Gregory Gilbert. Amino was a pioneer in his exploration of cast plastic as a medium for sculptural expression in the period after WWII. Influenced variously by Henry Moore, Bauhaus, Constructivism and Surrealism, he developed an idiosyncratic style of biomorphic abstraction visible in both his cast plastic and carved wood sculptures. He would later collage translucent but solidly colored plastic elements in a geometric, cubic vocabulary in dialogue with work by Minimalists such as Donald Judd and Larry Bell. 4to, pictorial wrappers, 38 unnumbered pages; illustrations (12 b/w, 9 color). A scarce and important reference on a formerly under-appreciated artist whose work is now represented by David Zwirner. Considerable rubbing and bumping to extremities; content clean.