Betty Gold

“My inspiration comes from many directions, experiences and channels, but my work always begins with the simple act of folding paper. I create a flat, rectangular structure, deconstruct the parts and reassemble them into the whole, then create a set of drawings and geometric models based on the linear geometry of rotating movement.”

A painter and a sculptor, Betty Gold has remained committed to geometry and balance throughout her work. The non-representational form and shapes point to the artist’s roots in the Concrete art of the 1930s, and produce a dynamic play between positive and negative space. Working in a variety of metals such as steel, bronze and copper, her exterior sculptures are typically fabricated from steel sheets that are either painted with automobile enamel in primary colors, or left in their raw state to rust to a velvety patina. As her works became larger in scale, she began to conceive them not as individual pieces but in a series in which a single idea could be put through many different transformations.

MA IV was produced after Gold’s 2005 retrospective exhibition in Mallorca. It is on view at the Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden at the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert. Every surface and side of the work is painted vibrant yellow, and the rolled steel forms cast shadows—upon each other and upon the surrounding environment.