David C. Levy Double 19

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Leading New York's Parsons School of Design for 20 years, Levy transformed it from a tiny and obscure academy to one of the world's largest and most prestigious arts institutions. This was followed by his appointment as Chancellor of The New School, Parsons' parent university, then by 14 years as the Director and President of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC's oldest museum and largest privately supported cultural institution and most recently by ten years as President of Sotheby's Institute of Art. Levy's interest in mobile sculptures began in his late teens during frequent visits to the home of his family's close friend, the musician and recording impresario Mitch Miller. The Miller's art collection contained a number of mobiles, along with original Toulouse Lautrec posters and other compelling works. But this early enthusiasm lay dormant for many years until his tenure as President/Director of The Corcoran, where he mounted an exhibition that included a large work by Alexander Calder. He hung it dramatically in the museum's grand atrium and was so moved by its impact on the space that he tried to negotiate a long-term loan of the piece. Though this effort was unsuccessful, the imagery remained fixed in his mind and prompted him to experiment with kinetic forms of his own. The result has been a body of work drawing on the modernist principles that shaped Calder's art, as they did for so many American artists of their generation. An artist/art historian, Levy believes that all mature art, no matter how radical, builds on the foundations of the past and that while artists often share a common vocabulary, each brings a new personality, the nuances of a uniquely formed expressive direction and a personal vision that differentiates their work and moves it forward. "This is a wonderful and joyful art form." says Levy. "It is important to build on its foundations so that it can evolve and be accessible to a wide public through the work and creative imaginations of many artists. And while we must acknowledge a great debt to the work of Alexander Calder, the development of this genre should not be inhibited by a critical community or a market that wishes to create a brand by artificially limiting its authenticity to the work of one individual."