Maquette for "Threshold" 1981

Seymour Lipton made this maquette for "Threshold," and what strikes me is its raw, almost brutal honesty. It’s metal, pure and simple, worked and welded, but not disguised. The surface is everything here. You can see the marks of the making—the joins, the textures where the metal has been bent and coaxed into shape. It’s not trying to be smooth or perfect; instead, it revels in its materiality. Look at the way the light catches those vertical bars, revealing every imperfection, every little bump and weld. That’s where the life of this piece is, in those details. It reminds me of some of David Smith’s sculptures, that same love of metal, that same refusal to hide the process. Ultimately, art is about this conversation, this back-and-forth between artists across time. It’s not about having all the answers, but about asking the right questions, and maybe finding a new way to see the world in the process.