‘Electric Picnic’ Sculpture on Display at Timken Museum of Art

May 28, 2019 | Filed under: Creative Arts,Events,Featured | Posted by: Team

Roman de Salvo, Contemporary American Sculptor, to Create Installation for Timken’s Artist-in-Residence Program

Residency begins in June as de Salvo prepares an installation inspired by Jean Honoré Fragonard’s picturesque, Rococo-era, ‘Blindman’s Buff,’ part of the Timken’s permanent collection
The public will have the opportunity to watch de Salvo create the ‘Electric Picnic’ before the sculpture officially opens on June 28

Roman de Salvo is a contemporary American s sculptor whose work infuses the everyday with surprising effect and intrigue. His art is characterized by the inventive use of ordinary materials and objects often involving energetic phenomena such as wind, water, fire, electricity, and audience participation. As part of the Timken Museum of Art’s summer artist-in-residence program, de Salvo will create the Electric Picnic sculpture based on the picturesque, Rococo- era, Blindman’s Buff (1775-80) by Jean Honoré Fragonard, which is part of the Museum’s permanent collection. De Salvo’s residency starts at the beginning of June, and the Electric Picnic sculpture will be on display at the Timken June 28 through August 25, 2019.

“Each summer, the Timken welcomes a contemporary artist to its residency program, one who explores art in a new, creative and unique way,” stated Megan Pogue, executive director of the Timken Museum of Art. “This year, we are fortunate to have acclaimed American sculptor

Roman de Salvo who will present his own brand of electricity to the public with a vibrant Electric Picnic sculpture, inspired by one of the Museum’s most beloved works—Blindman’s Buff by Jean Honoré Fragonard.”

De Salvo’s Electric Picnic will be a modern twist on Fragonard’s Blindman’s Buff, which depicts the charm, beauty and private moments of the French aristocracy of the late 18th century. On the other hand, Electric Picnic will be a decidedly 21st-century interpretation accessible and relatable to all, from the casual observer to the art aficionado.

Roman de Salvo’s ‘Electric Picnic’ at the Timken

“As I set myself to the challenge, finding inspiration from the Timken’s collection happened pretty naturally,” commented de Salvo. “I was drawn to the schematic sort of way Fragonard painted the tree limbs and foliage in the painting at the Timken .This piqued my interest in the rest of Fragonard’s work. I found that his approach to painting trees always had that schematic quality, like he constructed the tree on the canvas, bifurcation by bifurcation.”

De Salvo continued, “This reminded me of the numerous Y-adapter chandeliers I’ve made in the past for various other contexts. I decided I wanted to do an homage to Fragonard’s trees as a full-scale sculpture, modularly constructed according to the logic of bifurcation.”

Watch the ‘Electric Picnic’ Grow and Take Shape

With the Timken’s Electric Picnic installation, de Salvo envisioned that the public would be part of the process and have the opportunity to watch him work as his creation comes to life throughout the month of June—before the installation officially opens. With that in mind, de Salvo offered the following:

“I designed my work area in a way that would welcome people and even give them space to sit and converse with me while I work if they’d like. I came up with a design of a set of heavy wood benches where I’ll be able to work and on which people can sit. The benches will be arranged as a sort of conversation pit and will be connected in such a way that they will have the necessary mass and footprint to function as a base to which I will anchor my tree structure. So in a way, the project features its own studio accommodating my process, visitors and ultimately, presentation of the work.”

The Artist and His Work

A current resident of San Diego, de Salvo was born in San Francisco and raised in Reno, Nevada. De Salvo received a BFA in Sculpture from the California College of the Arts and an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego.

Since 2005, de Salvo has been making large-scale works for public parks. These include Seven for Seven Trees, a public playground in San Jose; and The Riparium, an expansive gateway structure for Ruocco Park in Seaport Village in downtown San Diego. In 2006, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) commissioned the permanent lighting installation, Utility Filigree, for the stairwell of its downtown location.

Rain bow, one of his first interactive public works, was displayed in the San Diego Natural History Museum in 1994. In the 1998 work, Garden Guardians, video game joysticks were mounted on the outdoor patios of MCASD. The manipulation of these joysticks produced an emission of fragrant mist. Ten years later, de Salvo completed The Legway for San Diego’s New Children’s Museum.

De Salvo’s most recent installation, McCairns, is part of the Murals of La Jolla public art program and uses an image of cairns (a human-made pile of stone which dates back to prehistoric times) to mark the entrance to the community of Bird Rock and is now on display at 5535 La Jolla Boulevard.

Calendar Listing

‘Electric Picnic’ Sculpture by Artist-in-Residence Roman de Salvo June 28-August 25, 2019

Timken Museum of Art – Balboa Park 1500 El Prado San Diego, CA 92101

Hours: