Robert Kantor, Camp Hope, various media, 2002
For 300 dpi photo, click on the image or here.
The Hope Series is a small body of works—only three free standing sculptures and an installation piece
Kantor will be constructing for the CoCA exhibition with Seattle artist Rick Araluce. The first piece,
Camp Hope, features barbed wire stretched menacingly between two raw wooden posts perched on a rather
massive and beautifully rusted steel plinth. The barbed wire is populated by 18 clay-colored spectral
butterflies and 2 rendered in full color using plaster, paint and bits of glass. Camp Hope is 7’ tall
and 9’ wide. Hope 2 is built around a World War II era five hundred pound bomb lifted above a similarly
massive pedestal. Hope 3, a similarly structured work, features a paravane (a ship-towed anti-mine device)
and a U.S. infantry helmet. Hope 4 features a 10’ x 20’ x 2’ object painted to resemble a prison wall
covered with razor wire.
Robert Kantor, Hope 2, various media, 2002
For 300 dpi photo, click on the image or here.
Kantor’s Hope Series is about the Holocaust and the atrocities of WWII. Camp Hope and the installation
piece, Hope 4, are specifically about the experience of concentration camp victims and survivors. The work relates
to the historical past of WWII seen from the vantage point of the present: the apparent aged quality of
the objects hints at history and the effects of time on memory. Despite its clear references to violence
and atrocity, Kantor presses his work to find a way to be not so much about the wounds of the past as it
is about building a shared path to the future. The series is not only about atrocity but balance and hope
as well.
Robert Kantor, Hope 3, various media, 2002
For 300 dpi photo, click on the image or here.
As catalog for the exhibition, CoCA has produced: Robert Kantor: The Hope Series and Other Sculptures, which features an essay by exhibition curator Daniel Kany.
Robert Kantor, who lives in Hailey, ID, was born in 1943 and grew up mostly in Dallas, Texas. He graduated
from the University of Colorado where he studied art history and English literature. Kantor was a graduate
fellow at New York University in 1964 when he first began making mobile sculptures, although his intense
focus on ambitious sculpture did not begin until the late 1990’s when he opened a welding shop in Shoshone,
Idaho with his primary welder, Mary Garrett. He is represented by the Ochi Gallery in Ketchum, ID. He also
shows with the I. Wolk Gallery in St. Helena, CA and RVS Fine Arts Gallery in Southampton, NY.
The book, Robert Kantor: The Hope Series and Other Sculptures by Daniel Kany (Seattle,CoCA Editions:
2006, 96pp. full color), is available to the public for $25 (click here to purchase). It is available to the press on request in print and pdf format.
For press inquiry, please click here to email.
Publication-quality images are available on request.To download portrait photo, click here.
For more information on Robert Kantor and his work, please contact Daniel Kany (206+240.0480) or visit http://robertkantor.com.
CoCA serves the Pacific Northwest as a catalyst and forum for the advancement, development,
and understanding of contemporary art. CoCA provides opportunities for the art audience in this region to view
new and experimental artwork firsthand in exhibitions which show the work of international, national and local
artists.
Robert Kantor, Camp Hope, various media, 2002
