The art of Albert Paley

Albert Paley first came to prominence as one of the leading craft jewelers in America, an accomplishment that eventually led in 1969 to his extraordinary work as a monumental sculptor. Today he is recognized as one of the country's most gifted metal artists. The Art of Albert Paley is the first monograph on this important artist. Paley was born in Philadelphia and later trained at the Tyler School of Art, where he pursued his interests in jewelry and metalwork. It was this twin foundation that forged Paley's career, beginning in the early 1960s, at the height of American abstraction. Specifically, the artist's command of jewelry design prepared him for what remains his most famous commission, the portal gates of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. These elegant eight-foot gates took Paley and an assistant one year to complete; they were unveiled to the public in 1974. Since that time he has made architectural sculptures for museums, organizations, and private clients worldwide, including the Reading Terminal Convention Center, Philadelphia; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, Houston; and the Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, Florida. In The Art of Albert Paley, noted critic and art historian Edward Lucie-Smith discusses the diversity and significance of Paley's achievements and explores how, like so many American artists, his work crosses the boundaries that separate art from craft. The more than one hundred illustrations reproduce not only Paley's major works, but also his preliminary drawings, many published here for the first time. This survey also includes a complete list of Paley's works, including major commissions, chronology, and exhibition history.