Debra Sachs Split Pyramid III Two-Part Sculpture in Sand and Copper Over Wood

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Debra Sachs Split Pyramid III Two-Part Sculpture in Sand and Copper over Wood
American, 1989

“Split Pyramid III” is a … Read more Debra Sachs Split Pyramid III Two-Part Sculpture in Sand and Copper over Wood
American, 1989

“Split Pyramid III” is a two-part sculpture by the New Jersey sculptor Debra Sachs, made in 1989 as the third of her split pyramids. A stepped pyramid has been divided on the diagonal into two unequal halves, each a free-standing element built over a wooden carcass and finished in dark gray sand. The stepped faces are set with elongated triangles of verdigris-patinated sheet copper, fixed with rows of small copper tacks and pointing downward against upward-pointing triangles of the sand ground, so that each tier reads as a band of copper-and-sand chevrons. The flat faces along the split are finished in plain sand. Each half rises in diminishing tiers to a small square pinnacle, one finished in copper and the other in sand. The artist’s inscription on the underside directs that the two halves be placed 3½ inches apart at the bottom, leaving a narrow wedge of space between them that gives the work its title.

Sachs has said that an object can be designed so thoughtfully that it evokes the spiritual without direct reference to subject matter, and that in her sculpture “the design, itself, is the content.” The split pyramid, an ancient and elemental form built up from raw sand and metal and then cut apart, is an early statement of that idea.

The two halves ask for a little space around them and read best on a low surface where the split can be seen from above — a console behind a sofa, a wide mantel, a library table or a pair of matching plinths. The dark gray sand and verdigris copper sit well against warm wood and unbleached linen, and the stepped profile gives a modern room the kind of quiet architectural presence a single tall object cannot.

Dimensions (each):
Height: 19 inches (48.3 cm)
Width: 17¼ inches (43.8 cm)
Depth: 8⅝ inches (21.9 cm)

Marks:
Signed and dated in ink on the underside “Debra M. Sachs 1989”; inscribed on the base batten “SPLIT PYRAMID III / place 3½" apart at bottom”; artist’s paper label “Debra Sachs / Split Pyramid III.”

Provenance:
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition:
Good

References:
Debra Sachs, artist’s statement; Debra Sachs, curriculum vitae (2023); Hechinger Collection, International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C., collection database (“Two Carpenters,” 1989); browngrotta arts, Wilton, Connecticut, artist page.

Historical Context:
Debra Sachs (born 1953, Worcester, Massachusetts) trained as a painter at Moore College of Art, Philadelphia (B.F.A. 1975), and took her M.A. at the University of New Mexico (1978) before settling in Gloucester City, New Jersey, on the Delaware River. She held New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowships in 1986 and 1995, a National Endowment for the Arts regional fellowship through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (1995), and a George and Helen Segal Foundation grant for sculpture (2010). In 1989, the year of this work, she exhibited in “New Expressions” at the Noyes Museum, Oceanville, New Jersey, and “Art Around the Edges” at the Port of History Museum, Philadelphia, and received Camden County’s Hopkins House solo show award.

Her sculpture is in the collections of the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; the Noyes Museum; the Montclair Art Museum; the Morris Museum, Morristown; the Jersey City Museum; the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Hechinger Collection, Washington, D.C., which holds “Two Carpenters” of the same year; and the United States Embassy, Bangkok. Her later work in laminated and carved poplar, wire and paper twine is represented by browngrotta arts, Wilton, Connecticut.

Ref: NY11258-iaax See less