Herb Alpert’s Spirit Totems Find New Home on Field Museum’s South Steps


Probelm viewing click here Herb Alpert’s Spirit Totems Find New Home on Field Museum’s South Steps Herb Alpert’s bronze totems on Museum’s south steps. Photograph by James Prinz, Chicago
Chicago, IL — The Field Museum has long been the place to see totems. Visitors will discover a new interpretation on this historical art form when they see eight of Herb Alpert’s seventeen foot high black, bronze totems on The Field’s south steps as well as an additional totem inside the Museum’s main hall. Alpert, a nine time Grammy Award-Winning musician, philanthropist and supporter of the arts, has continually explored other artistic ventures, always acknowledging a connection between music and visual art in his creative process. A painter for over four decades, Alpert’s bold, abstract expressionist canvases have been exhibited internationally and are part of the permanent collections of MoCA Los Angeles, The Tennessee State Art Museum in Nashville and has been shown in galleries around the U.S. and Europe. Read Chicago Sun–Times article on Herb Alpert by Miriam Di Nunzio here. Photos of Herb Alpert’s bronze totems, credit to James Prinz, Chicago. Alpert says the totems were inspired by a visit to the Pacific Northwest in 2000 but explains that his work is only loosely connected to the traditions that inspired him. “I started with three foot totems, more symbolic, bouncing off what I had seen… but soon I took the work in more abstract directions and it became more like a jazz response.” Herb Alpert at Field Museum with ‘totems’. Photographs by James Prinz, Chicago Alpert’s totems have been described as “frozen smoke” and are touchable – a rare quality in bronze sculpture. Each totem takes about three months to complete and begins as a 10–inch hand–sculpted wax form, then to clay before being “transposed” into its larger incarnation (ranging from 13 to 18 feet tall). “The totems I saw years ago in the Pacific Northwest–like the ones that are so beautifully displayed in the permanent collection at The Field–moved my sculptural concept from the literal to the spontaneity of abstraction,” says Alpert. “I feel honored to be part of The Field Museum experience, and to have my Spirit Totems installed and greet visitors that come to the Museum for inspiration and knowledge.” The totems will be on display at The Field until September 2016.
For Herb Alpert press and interviews contact Caroline Graham, C4 Global Communications caroline@c4global.com \| 310.899.2727 For Field Museum Public Relations contact media@fieldmuseum.org \| 312.665.7100

Herb Alpert’s Spirit Totems Find New Home
on Field Museum’s South Steps

Herb Alpert’s bronze totems on Museum’s south steps. Photograph by James Prinz, Chicago

Chicago, IL — The Field Museum has long been the place to see totems. Visitors will discover a new interpretation on this historical art form when they see eight of Herb Alpert’s seventeen foot high black, bronze totems on The Field’s south steps as well as an additional totem inside the Museum’s main hall.

Alpert, a nine time Grammy Award-Winning musician, philanthropist and supporter of the arts, has continually explored other artistic ventures, always acknowledging a connection between music and visual art in his creative process. A painter for over four decades, Alpert’s bold, abstract expressionist canvases have been exhibited internationally and are part of the permanent collections of MoCA Los Angeles, The Tennessee State Art Museum in Nashville and has been shown in galleries around the U.S. and Europe.

Read Chicago Sun–Times article on Herb Alpert by Miriam Di Nunzio here.

Photos of Herb Alpert’s bronze totems, credit to James Prinz, Chicago.

Alpert says the totems were inspired by a visit to the Pacific Northwest in 2000 but explains that his work is only loosely connected to the traditions that inspired him. “I started with three foot totems, more symbolic, bouncing off what I had seen… but soon I took the work in more abstract directions and it became more like a jazz response.”

Herb Alpert at Field Museum with ‘totems’. Photographs by James Prinz, Chicago

Alpert’s totems have been described as “frozen smoke” and are touchable – a rare quality in bronze sculpture. Each totem takes about three months to complete and begins as a 10–inch hand–sculpted wax form, then to clay before being “transposed” into its larger incarnation (ranging from 13 to 18 feet tall).

“The totems I saw years ago in the Pacific Northwest–like the ones that are so beautifully displayed in the permanent collection at The Field–moved my sculptural concept from the literal to the spontaneity of abstraction,” says Alpert. “I feel honored to be part of The Field Museum experience, and to have my Spirit Totems installed and greet visitors that come to the Museum for inspiration and knowledge.” The totems will be on display at The Field until September 2016.

For Herb Alpert press and interviews contact
Caroline Graham, C4 Global Communications
caroline@c4global.com | 310.899.2727

For Field Museum Public Relations contact
media@fieldmuseum.org | 312.665.7100