- Terry Fugate-Wilcox
Terry Fugate-Wilcox (born 1944) is American Actual artist, painter and sculptor.
Life and work
Born Raymond Terry Fugate, a blue baby, in
Kalamazoo, Michigan was abandoned by his mother, Alberta Alaria Fugate. His father, Raymond Fugate of theBlue Fugates of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky, (Hugonaut French father and full-blood Dakota Sioux mother). The family is well-documented for a blood condition that turns the skin blue. Raymond Fugate was killed inWWII , before his son was born. When Raymond Terry was six, his mother returned, remarried and with a baby daughter. At age sixteen, Raymond was formally adopted by his stepfather, Dale Wilcox, becoming Raymond Terry Fugate-Wilcox. [ [It's the Artist's Life for me!] ] He attended Howe Military School, Howe Indiana & Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan. [ [Marquis Who's Who] ] In 1963, Fugate-Wilcox left college to marry Valerie Monroe Shakespeare, [ [Marquis Who's Who] ] who convinced him to drop "Raymond", changing his name to Terry Fugate-Wilcox.(See "It's the Artist's Life for me!" a memoir by Tery Fugate-Wilcox & Valerie Monroe Shakespeare. [ [It's the Artist's Life for me!] ] While in Kalamazoo, Fugate-Wilcox exhibited his work atWestern Michigan University ,Kalamazoo , MI;University of Illinois at Chicago Circle,Chicago , IL;Grand Rapids Art Museum ,Grand Rapids , MI and Kalamazoo Art Center,Kalamazoo , MI [1967] ; Battle Creek Art Center,Battle Creek , MI [1966] and at theDetroit Institute of Arts Competition,Detroit , MI [1965] .Conceptual Art PeriodIn 1968, Fugate-Wilcox & his wife, Valerie Shakespeare moved to New York City, when Conceptual Art was at its peak. Fugate-Wilcox picked a non-existant address on 57th Street, then the center of art in New York and created an entire gallery that didn't exist, full of artists who didn't exist, all making art that didn't exist. The famous, non-existant Jean Freeman Gallery, was in reaction to Fugate-Wilcox' frustration about the state of the artworld: "Things had become so ridiculous, that I knew I had to do something to expose the political structure of the art scene." [ [Jean Freeman Gallery] ] Called "the conceptual artwork that ended conceptual art" by Nancy Foote, in "Ripping Off the Art Magazines", a positive article in
Art in America about the artwork, despite its title, was the result of the donation of all the advertising bills, left from the creation of the artwork, to the artist.Art in America . [ [Ripping off the Art Magazines] ]Brian O'Doherty publicly announcedArt in America 's donation on theToday Show ,NBC , on which he appeared with Terry Fugate-Wilcox and anchor, Frank McGee, to discuss the Conceptual artwork. [ [The Today Show, NBC] ] The Jean Freeman Gallery was exposed, before its completion, by Grace Glueck, in the New York Times. [ ["The Non Gallery of No Art"] ] The non-existant gallery continued until the end of the 1970 art season, when Fugate-Wilcox took out full-page ads in all the art magazines, consisting of the words, "26 West 57th Street does not exist", with his signature. John Perrault announced that he "...knew it all along." [ ["Art &....", "TheVillage Voice ", February, 1971] ] and many wrote letters to the gallery saying, "There is a rumor you don't exist. Is that true?" [ [It's the Artist's Life for me!] ]In 1971, Terry Fugate-Wilcox donated an "r" to the Irish cause, changing his name, yet again, to Tery Fugate Wilcox. (Shortly after,
Brian O'Doherty , then publisher ofArt in America became "Patrick Ireland " in support of the same cause.) Also in 1971, Tery and his wife, Valerie submitted nude passport photos. Although the photos were taken from the shoulders up, the couple was refused passports and sparked an investigation by Internal Security Commission, the new investigative branch forHouse Un-American Activities Committee and considerable controversy. [ [Books] ]Actual Art Tery Fugate-Wilcox found his artistic voice in a genre that eventually became known as
Actual Art .He later expanded the idea of "Touch" sculptures to include metal works, plated with layers of copper, silver and gold; then sculptures and "paintings" of gold, silver or copper leaf, left unburnished, or "fluffy", so that colors beneath the leaf would emerge, only after the leaf was worn off by the touch of spectators. A public vote, initiated by Doris Freedman, director of the Municipal Arts Society, (later changed to
Public Art Fund in which artists were commissioned to make models of their proposed work, which were then displayed in local schools, banks & on an "Art Bus", allowed citizens to vote on thepublic art to be chosen for their neighborhood. Fugate-Wilcox won the vote and was commissioned to create the sculpture "3000 A.D. Diffusion Piece" (1974) in J. Hood Wright Park, in the Washington Heights area ofNew York City . The sculpture is composed of several stacked and bolted plates ofmagnesium andaluminum , which Fugate-Wilcox estimates will fuse together, by a process known asdiffusion at or around the year 3000 A.D [ [3000 A.D.] ]Fugate-Wilcox also created the
public sculpture "Weathering Triangle" (1984) at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Waverly Place inManhattan . Although the work had been approved by theNew York City Landmarks Commission , as a temporary work of art, the local Community Board ofGreenwich Village had a long-standing ban on art and caused a sensation, when the work became "criminal art". The owner of the property, Valerie Monroe Shakespeare was prosecuted incriminal court , several times for failure to obtain a Building Permit, despite the fact that the Buildings Department had told her the sculpture required no permit. The nature of a Buildings Department violation is that, as long as the violation exists, the violator can continually be brought back tocriminal court , no matter how many times the case is dismissed. Finally, her lawyer from Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, demanded a trial to stop what he termed "harassment". At trial, the case was summarily dismissed by the judge, for "failure to make aprima facia case", that is, failure to prove that the sculpture required a Building Permit. In the meantime theCity of New York obtained adefault judgement on a million-dollar lawsuit against Ms. Shakespeare. With the help of Kaye, Scholer, (through Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts) the City eventually gave up the suit and the sculpture was moved to the home of a private collector in New Jersey. [ [NY Post] ]Terminal Exhibition, that ran from September through November of 1983. The work, consisting of plain two-by-fours resting on end, upright, in a stepped base, also made of two-by-fours, took advantage of the variations in humidity to warp and "flower out" when dry & "close back up" when the environment became more damp. [ [Terminal Art] ] Fugate-Wilcox contributed a similar piece, "Weathering Wood", to an outdoor sculpture exhibition at Saunder's Farm, in
Garrison ,New York in [2007] , where sculptures shared the bucolic pastures with several dozen cows. Surprisingly, over 400 visitors came to the opening of the show, which could only be accessed by a long winding dirt road.In 1989, Fugate-Wilcox created the 40-foot-tall Sculpture for
Prudential , consisting of 5 various sized tetrahedrons, in a family grouping. Particles of copper, brass, bronze, steel & iron, were imbedded just under the surface, as the wet concrete was applied, in the manner of afresco . The work sat in the center of a reflecting pool and as water from the built-in fountain flowed over the sculptures, the colors of blue, turquoise, green, ochre and reddish browns migrated up to create patterns on the surface. The work was in the main lobby of Gateway 4, of thePrudential , inNewark ,New Jersey , until 1998, whenPrudential sold the building, the fountain was dismantled by the artist and sold to a private collector. [ [Gateway] ]Weathering Wall Artworks
In addition to various public sculptures, Tery Fugate-Wilcox was commissioned to create art pieces on several walls of buildings in NYC. The most notable of these was the "Holland Tunnel Wall" at the New York entrance to the Holland Tunnel. The huge, 60 foot by 80 foot billboard space was donated by the owner of the building & the work was painted by riggers of the Apollo painting Company, who donated their services, as well, to the sponsor of the work, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. The first layer was red epoxy paint; the second layer, yellow latex; the third layer, blue oil-based alkyd; the fourth layer, green pigmented shellac & the fifth, final layer was whitewash of white, water-soluble casein paint. All of the paint was also donated by the manufacturers, under the auspices of the LMCC.
The artist's intention was to use paints that were incompatible with each other, so that as the work weathered, all the different colors would emerge, in natural patterns. The work was in place for over ten years. When the sub-structure of the plywood billboard eventually gave way to the effects of weathering & had to be dismantled, the artist was able to reclaim many of the weathered plywood panels which, in turn became individual works of art. [ [Weathering Walls] ]
, the white wall was embedded with narrow, 3 inch by 3 foot bars of copper, brass, bronze. iron & steel. As the wall weathered, the rain would carry corrosion particles down from the bars, creating patterns of color beneath each bar. Fugate-Wilcox also designed the interior of the loft building, known as "Weathering Heights" after the wall sculpture. Included in his designs were a fluorescent light chandelier in the lobby, unique fluorescent wall fixtures on each floor and a new elevator with floors designated by Roman numerals.
an Andreas Fault Sculpture Project
. [http://www.sanandreasfaultsculpture.info San Andreas Fault Sculpture.info] , retrieved August 20, 2008]
The work will comprise a one-acre monolith of highly durable low-exothermic air-entrained
concrete (20 ft deep, 188 ft wide, 232 ft long, and weighing 65,000 tons) spanning the fault and anchored to the bedrock on either side of it. As the fault moves (some 2-3 inches a year) it is intended that the block will break into twogolden rectangle s that will continue to move past each other, with the stated intent of "using theEarth itself, as a tool to make the movement of massive continents [ [plate tectonics] ] visible on a scale that can be understood in human terms".Intended to be visible from the tram overlooking the area, the Project is to be a centre for education and information about
plate tectonics ,earth sciences and environmental concerns. A gallery about the Project will be maintained at the site and inPalm Springs , and the Project will be available for use to raise monies for other related charitable causes, with access to the top for events and fundraising. The site will also be maintained in the spirit of a public park, and the Project intends to restore the surrounding desert, subject to past disruptions, to its former natural beauty.
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