American Artist
ArtPin Artist Interview: Betty Gold
By Brittany Krupski
Over the course of her five-decade career as a painter and sculptor, Betty Gold has produced a prolific body of work with a distinct visual language that can be found in collections and outdoor installations around the world. Hers is a language of geometry and abstraction, of bold monochromatic colors, and angular steel planes. Yet there is a playfulness to her work, which can appear almost puzzle-like with it’s bright glossy paint and origami folds. Contrasts such as this exist within her sculptures harmoniously, offering a visually pleasing balance between masculine and feminine, firm and yielding, shadow and light, and negative and positive space. Like her work, Gold is a study in these dualities: a feminine former model attracted to working with steel in the laborious, male dominated world of sculpture.
Born in 1935 in Austin, Texas, Gold began her career in the 1950’s, studying under renowned sculptor Octavio Medillan. She has dedicated herself to the exploration of her geometric concept, beginning with a rectangle, which she deconstructs into various shapes then reassembles by welding. By the 1970’s she was receiving commissions for her work all over the world, achieving great acclaim and success while disaffirming the traditional view of sculpture as a masculine pursuit. She has traveled extensively throughout her life, studying, lecturing, and taking inspiration from the diverse cultures she has encountered. In 2005 she was honored with a major retrospective exhibition at the Casal Solleric Museum in Palma, Spain, filling ten rooms of the historic castle. In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious XAM award of Plastic Arts.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Betty Gold at one of our favorite galleries in Los Angeles, FP Contemporary. Amidst the work from her solo exhibition, "RECONSTRUCTED,” Gold discussed the development of her career, her artistic process, and discovering her place in the MADI art movement, before offering some advice to young artists.
FP Contemporary is a contemporary art gallery located in the Culver City Arts District in Los Angeles. They specialize in exhibiting paintings, abstract photography, sculpture and digital mixed-media work by talented emerging and established artists from around the world. Currently at the gallery is Julia Nee Chu’s solo exhibition “Near and Afar,” featuring paintings full of movement and spontaneity that express the dualities and processes of nature. The show will be on view until June 11th. You can find out more here: http://artpin.com/los-angeles/shows/1914
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