Farewell to Beverly Pepper, American sculptor passes away at 97.

American sculptor Beverly Pepper, who had lived in Italy for some time, passed away yesterday evening in Todi. The artist was best known for her environmental installations and Land Art works, which characterized her output after her beginnings in painting.These works are distinguished by their use of heavy materials (such as iron and cast iron) and address themes such as the human-nature relationship and the link between art and the environment.

Born Beverly Stoll in Brooklyn in 1922, she had studied photography as well as advertising and industrial design at the Art Students’ League in Brooklyn before leaving the U.S. to move to France, where she completed her training at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In Europe she also had the opportunity to travel to Italy, and in Rome, where she attended Gruppo Forma 1, she met Curtis Bill Pepper, who became her husband. Her first solo exhibition was held in Rome, at the Galleria dello Zodiaco, in 1952, and was presented by Carlo Levi. After traveling in Cambodia she turned to sculpture, first making works in wood and clay and exhibiting her sculptural work for the first time in New York and Rome in 1961, with a presentation by Carlo Giulio Argan. Also in the 1960s are the beginnings of her iron production, the one for which she is perhaps most famous.

Present at the Venice Biennale in 1972 and in 1977 at the VI Documenta in Kassel, she moved to Todi in the 1970s, establishing her permanent residence in the Umbrian city but continuing to work between the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean (environmental works such as Dallas Land Canal and Hillside in Dallas and Amphisculpture in New York date from those very years: the latter intervention was later also made in 2018 in L’Aquila). His works can be found in New York, San Diego, Denver, Boston, Calgary, Zurich, Barcelona, Vilnius, Florence, and Pistoia. His exhibitions have been held all over the world: in Italy, the 1998 Florence retrospective and the 2014 Ara Pacis Museum retrospective are worth mentioning. His latest work is the Todi Park, which opened last September.

Awards and honors Beverly Pepper has received throughout her career include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in New York, National Academician from the National Academy Museum and school in New York, the Alexander Calder Sculpture Award in France, thehonor of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres Paris, that of Commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, and that of Accademico di Merito at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia.

Farewell to Beverly Pepper, American sculptor passes away at 97.

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