Alice Aycock is an American artist known for her sculptural land-art compositions. The huge environmental artworks made from the variety of materials, including metal, wood and stone, combine ordinary and fantastic things, science and faith.
Background
Alice Aycock was born November 20, 1946, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. She is a daughter of Jesse N. Aycock, a construction engineer, and Alyce F. Haskins.
She revealed her interest in the world of art at the young age. Firstly, inspired by the fascinating stories of her grandmother the little Alice dreamt to become a writer. Then, she changed the media of a dream by choosing the visual arts.
Alice Aycock was always encouraged by the parents in her intention to become an artist. She often observed how her father produced scale models of houses. One of the debut Aycock’s land-art pieces called Low Building with Dirt Roof (for Mary) was created with the help of the artist’s mother.
Education
Alice Aycock did her studies at the Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1968.
Later, Aycock pursued her artistic training in New York City where she enrolled at the Hunter College. At the institution, she received art lessons from the sculptor and conceptual artist Robert Morris. While studying, Aycock travelled on occasions and visited American Southwest (Great Kivas), Greece and Turkey, England and Mexico.
She obtained her Master of Fine Arts in 1971 with her thesis ‘An Incomplete Examination of the Highway Network/User/Perceiver Systems’.
Alice Aycock started her artistic career at the early 1970s with the environmental installations like Maze (1972), Low Building with Dirt Roof (1973) and A Simple Network of Underground Wells and Tunnels (1975) compared with the Robert Smithson. The same period, Aycock tried her hand as a teacher – so, in 1972 she joined the professors’ stuff of the Hunter College where she spent one year. The artist returned to the institution in 1982 and this time had worked there till 1985.
Since 1976, Aycock’s art was represented at the John Weber Gallery in New York City. By this time, she exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (1977) and at the San Francisco Art Institute (1979). The artist took interest in the metaphysical issues that were reflected in her sculptures which became larger and united science, technology and spirituality, like ‘The Machine That Makes the World’ of 1979.
Alice Aycock pursued her teacher’s activity at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where she had occupied the post of the assistant professor from 1977-1978 and later in 1979-1982 and for one year since 1991. She also gave lessons on sculpture as the visiting professor at the Princeton University in New Jersey in spring 1979.
Four years later, Alice Aycock presented her pieces of art at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The same year, the artist had her debut retrospective held by the Wurttembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart which travelled to such German cities like Cologne, Marl and to The Hague in the Netherlands.
In 1988, the artist became an art teacher at the Yale University and had taught there for four years.
The next huge retrospective called ‘Complex Visions’ followed in 1990 at the Storm King Art Center in New York City.
During her career, Alice Aycock had worked on a great number of public commissions, including imaginary spiral stairs for the San Francisco Public Library in 1996, the big architectural sculpture for the decoration of the John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1998, the work for the Philadelphia International Airport in 2001 and the recent projects on the 50 West in New York City in July 2017 and on the Toronto waterfront at the end of the same year.
In 2010, Maryland Institute College of Art invited Aycock to become its professor. She had worked at the Institute for four years.
The third retrospective of Aycock’s paintings and sculptural compositions was organized in 2013 at the new Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York City and at the Grey Art Gallery.
Despite the above-mentioned personal shows and group exhibitions, the artist demonstrated her artworks to the public in Japan, Israel, Italy and Switzerland. Aycock took part at the Venice Biennale, a couple of Documenta exhibitions (at 6th with ‘The Beginnings of a Complex’ and at the 8th) and the Whitney Biennial as well.
Nowadays, Alice Aycock’s art is represented by the Marlborough Gallery, New York City.