Joel Shapiro, renowned for his expressive large-scale bronze sculptures that pushed the boundaries of Minimalism, has died at the age of 83. His death on Saturday, June 14, was confirmed by Pace Gallery, which had been his representative since 1992. Shapiro’s daughter informed the New York Times that the cause was acute myeloid leukemia.
Throughout his career, Shapiro was commissioned to create over 30 monumental sculptures, including notable works like “Loss and Regeneration” (1993) for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and “Blue” (2019) for the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. His pieces are part of significant collections at major art institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Getty in Los Angeles, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace Gallery, reflected on Shapiro’s impact, noting, “His early sculptures expanded the possibilities of scale, and in his mature figurative sculptures, he harnessed the forces of nature themselves,” expressing he would miss him dearly. Shapiro, born in Queens, New York City in 1941, initially pursued a medical career before turning to sculpture after serving in the Peace Corps in India and failing out of the University of Colorado.
Returning to New York, Shapiro obtained his Master’s degree in art from New York University in 1969. That year, he featured in a pivotal exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, marking his involvement in the Post-Minimalist movement. His early works in the 1970s depicted small everyday objects, and by the 1980s, he was creating life-size forms that resembled human figures.
Shapiro also explored woodcut printmaking and etching, and post-9/11, he reimagined his earlier works to explore themes of loss and rupture. Art historian Richard Shiff praised Shapiro’s work in 2008 for expanding emotional consciousness. Shapiro’s iconic figures, showcased on The Met’s rooftop in 2001, continue to represent his legacy of dynamic, monumental sculptures.
