Helaine Blumenfeld
In 1966, following her first major show, Helaine Blumenfeld gained the respect of international critics and collectors alike. Her sculpture has been exhibited alongside prestigious sculptors, such as Henry Moore and Brancusi. She has had several solo exhibitions and has been the focus of international attention.
Helaine Blumenfeld studied sculpture in Paris following a doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University. She came to England in 1969 and now divides her time between studios in Cambridge and Pietrasanta, Italy. She has lectured to the Cambridge Visual Arts Society, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Pietrasana Symposium and the British Psychoanalytic Society. She is also actively involved in organising and promoting exhibitions of sculpture in the environment and introduced the successful Sculpture in the Garden Show at Leicester University in 2003. In 2003, Blumenfeld received and honorary Doctor of Letters from Leicester University. In 2004, Blumenfeld was elected Vice President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
Blumenfeld has exhibited widely in both Britain and across the globe. These include, in England, Kettle's Yard, The Sainsbury Centre and the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Globally, she has exhibited in many prestigious places, including with Henry Moore at the Alex Rosenberg Gallery in New York. She had a large solo show at Robert Bowman Modern, London in January 2007 and a major exhibition at HET Depot in the Netherlands from June thru September 2007.
Blumenfeld has created over fifty large-scale commissions for the public and private sector alike. These include prestigious sites such as the U.S Federal Government Plaza, Wisconsin and high profile companies such as British Petroleum and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. In 2006, Helaine became the first ever woman to win the international sculpture prize Premio Pietrasanta nel Mondo and was given an exhibition in honour of that achievement.
Blumenfeld's new work is characterized by the way she takes solid, complex units and adds thinner, shell-like elements, which significantly change the mass of each piece: sculptures that had previously seemed earthbound suddenly acquire a sense of flight. The outer surfaces of these pieces reflect an inner spirituality and, while transparency is not easily achieved in sculpture, Blumenfeld's technical virtuosity means that she consistently brings light into her work as a fourth dimension.