Surrational Zeus

Herbert Ferber, Surrational Zeus, 1947, bronze, 51 x 30 x 27 in. (129.5 x 76.2 x 68.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2011.4, © Estate of Herbert Ferber

Artwork Details

Title: Surrational Zeus
Artist: Herbert Ferber
Date: 1947
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 51 x 30 x 27 in. (129.5 x 76.2 x 68.6 cm)
Copyright: © Estate of Herbert Ferber
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description: bronze
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Mythology — classical — Zeus
Object Number: 2011.4
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2011.4

Artwork Description

In 2008, Norman Kleeblatt, chief curator at the Jewish Museum in New York City, wrote in his major exhibition catalogue Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940--1976 that Surrational Zeus "epitomizes the surreal, figural and mythic orientation of most postwar efforts" in abstract expressionist sculpture. Ferber created the sculpture in 1947 after he moved from the conservative Midtown Galleries to the vanguard gallery run by Betty Parsons, where he came in close contact with Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Clyfford Still, who were creating art related to the abstract expressionist movement in painting. Ferber's work was very much a part of this postwar transition from illusionistic presentation to the creation of works with a presence of their own, without reference to any particular subject, pursued by sculptors like David Smith, Theodore Roszak, Ibram Lassaw, David Hare, and Seymour Lipton. The title Surrational Zeus was given to the piece after the fact by a poet friend of the Ferbers, as was fitting for the times and the expressionist movement. This bronze cast of Surrational Zeus is one of two made by the artist in the 1950s; the other is in the permanent collection at The Jewish Museum in New York City.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2011