William Tucker's Monumental Bronze and Plaster Sculptures at McKee Gallery Through June 3

William Tucker presents five substantial new bronze and plaster sculptures at McKee Gallery in New York, alongside maquette studies and a drawing, until June 3, 2005. The exhibition includes "Dancer" (2002–04), an 8-foot plaster work inspired by Degas's dancer examining her foot, which Tucker previously discussed in his 1970s lectures compiled as "The Language of Sculpture." Tucker's career shifted from precise, constructivist works in 1960s Britain to expressive, densely modeled forms after his late-1970s move to America. His current pieces, while monumental and corporeal, maintain a taut, contained energy that references the body through sensation rather than literal anatomy. Several works feature the human fist motif, conveying contained power. Tucker's use of fragments, akin to Rodin's approach, suggests the part contains the essence of the whole. His surfaces bristle with ambiguity, resulting from the nervous energy of creation rather than contrived multiplicity. The artist's scholarly writings, including his critique by postmodern theorist Rosalind Krauss, remain influential among Modernist sculptors. Despite a traditionalist turn, Tucker's work continues to explore the defiance of gravity and the tension between depiction and being, as seen in the Degas-inspired piece that balances physical and illusionary stability.