David Esterly

David Esterly ( born May 10, 1944) is an American sculptor and author. He works mainly with basswood and is known for his naturalistic high reliefs in the style of British Baroque sculptor Grinling Gibbons. David Esterly is married and now lives in the U.S. state of New York.

Life

Esterly was born in Akron in the U.S. state of Ohio, but grew up in Orange County, California. He graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree and his studies at Cambridge, where he gained a place with the help of the Fulbright Program, with a bachelor's and a doctorate. He majored in English. In his thesis he studied with the Irish poet William Butler Yeats and the ancient philosopher Plotinus.

After completing his studies, he rejected the idea of ​​an academic career. He turned to wood carving after being in London for the first time consciously saw a carving of Grinling Gibbons in the built by Christopher Wren church of St. James. Esterly pulled out in a zone in Sussex Cottage back to teach himself wood carving in the style of Gibbons. Although he ( are Schnitzer Hunger Artist ) repeated with the note " Carvers are starvers " has been warned he clung to it, to earn in this way his livelihood.

Reconstruction of Gibbons carvings

1986 a fire damaged parts of Hampton Court Palace. The fire broke out above the parade rooms of the king and was discovered early enough to save the portable works of art in this part of the palace. However, the high up nailed to the wall panels decorative carvings Gibbons were damaged by fire and fire water. A more than two meters long carving that adorned the side of a door, was completely burned. Esterly was commissioned to create a reproduction of this lost carving and worked for a year at Hampton Court Palace. The experience Esterly collected during this time, he described in the non-fiction book The Lost Carving: A Journey to the Heart of Making, published in the USA and 2013 in the UK, 2012. He describes it including the resistance within the palace administration to appoint a U.S. citizen with the restoration of a British heritage, its cooperation with other wood sculptors who worked on the restoration of the damaged from the fire and extinguishing water Gibbons carvings, their joint efforts, the to capture specific technique Gibbons and discussions, to what extent should be restored to a state in the carvings, which they had at the time Gibbons or whether the wax layers obtained in this original untreated carvings over the centuries and therefore the state should be prepared they had immediately before the fire. He also reflects on the importance of creative work. Reviews referred to his book as a wonderful meditation on the creative process. His first book about Grinling Gibbons ( Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving ), which was published in 1998 than had been taught and referred awesome.

Esterly was the use of sandpaper in the final polishing of wooden surfaces critically. Sandpaper is an invention of the 19th century. Influenced by the art historian John Ruskin, who had argued that surfaces by treatment with sandpaper a dull diffuse rest ( in the original text says Ruskin of smooth, diffused tranquility ) developed, it was assumed that Baroque wood carver as Gibbons their shimmering surfaces by particularly would achieve careful work with the carving. The careful investigation of the fire spared the remaining carvings but fell on regular serrations. Gibbons had obviously used a natural abrasive for smoothing the surfaces. An instrument makers pointed out that in older texts Horsetail was mentioned as an abrasive. Experiments with these dried plants produced identical machining marks.

Gibbons exhibition

Esterly sat down already during his work at Hampton Court Palace for a separate exhibition of works by Gibbons. This proposal also met with the management of the Hampton Court Palace to little response. From the perspective Esterlys the decrease in Gibbons carvings offered after the fire at Hampton Court Palace a unique opportunity to show them in closer proximity to an interested audience. However, to a Gibbons exhibition came in 1998 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Esterly worked as a curator for this exhibition.

Own work

With his own carvings to Esterly initially focused on ornamental work. He now focuses on wood sculptures that are reminiscent of still life and society "Botanical heads " in the type of painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. This is the style he developed when he was in 2002 as an artist at the American Academy in Rome as a guest.

Publications

• Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving, Abrams, 1998