Heavenly Gates
"At first, when I realized I was a romantic, I was sort of shocked and ashamed. But it is true … that the material I work most with is emotion." —Albert Paley
Albert Paley was a highly successful jewelry artist in 1974 when he won the Renwick Gallery's national design competition and was awarded the commission to design decorative metalwork doors for the gallery shop. His Portal Gates opened the door to a new career for Paley, leading to numerous commissions and world renown for his monumental architectural ironwork and sculpture. Paley's ironwork pays homage to European art nouveau and American abstract expressionism.
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Source: Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti. Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).
Pictured: Albert Paley, born 1944, Portal Gates, 1974, forged steel, brass, copper, and bronze, 90 3/4 x 72 x 4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Commissioned for the Renwick Gallery.
"At first, when I realized I was a romantic, I was sort of shocked and ashamed. But it is true … that the material I work most with is emotion." —Albert Paley
Albert Paley was a highly successful jewelry artist in 1974 when he won the Renwick Gallery's national design competition and was awarded the commission to design decorative metalwork doors for the gallery shop. His Portal Gates opened the door to a new career for Paley, leading to numerous commissions and world renown for his monumental architectural ironwork and sculpture. Paley's ironwork pays homage to European art nouveau and American abstract expressionism.