A review of the wood sculpture work of George Hart

Sculpture artist George W. Hart has created some very amazing and intriguing 3-D sculptures using several media, such as wood, metal, plastic.  Designs are obviously computer generated in most cases and reflect an inherent ability to visualize in 3-D.  The intricacy of assemblage is especially notable, as many finished works consist of hundreds of parts.

Hart's wood sculptures can be classified into two areas.  The first are those that represent classical mathematical shapes, such as "Leonardo Project" and "Yin & Yang".  In these, the simplicity of the underlying design may be embellished with a choice of contrasting woods to add interest to the work.  The other area of wood sculptures consists of simple to intricate patterned pieces, assembled in complex ways to make approximately spherical sculptures; for example "Snarl", "Dragonflies", and "Gem".  The individual pieces are cut by laser to exacting dimensions to enable the final assembly.  The attractiveness of these works lies in the arrangement of numerous pieces to create a complex 3-D sculpture, not in the wood itself which appears to be simple plywood.   



Hart's iconic wood piece may be the "Roads Untaken",  whose image is reproduced here.   It is an example of a classical mathematical form.  This wood sculpture is a variation of the truncated icosahedron, which is an Archimedean solid.  Wikipedia defines an Archimedean solid thus: "…Archimedean solid is a highly symmetric, semi-regular convex polyhedron composed of two or more types of regular polygons meeting in identical vertices."  The truncated icosahedron is well known by its realization in the soccer balls (football for most of the world).  By using the variation of the basic truncated icosahedron, Hart removes the need to use pentagons and executes the sculpture in only quadrangles and hexagons.  However, the number of faces grows from 32 to 902, indeed adding much complexity to the work.  Hart executes the polygons making up this work in three different exotic wood types: yellowheart, paela, and padauk, thus making a pleasing contrast among them. 

In all, Hart's wooden sculptures have a flair that makes them desirable for collectors or galleries.  They will clearly draw interest in any setting due to their uniqueness, their color and form contrasts, and their unusual artistic concepts.  Visit the George M. Hart website to see this work.