Two Standing Poets
By Ernest Trova
Category: Sculpture
About
The Poet series is characterized by simplified black steel forms. The figure that represents the Poet is often so abstracted as to be almost unrecognizable. Trova presents the Poets not as specific people, but rather as person-sized monoliths. Their identity as figures is not created through specificity of form, but implied through their size and relationship with their surroundings.
Dimensions: 8′ x 8′ x 2′
Year Completed: 1975
Material: Painted Cor-ten steel
Donor: Gift of the artist
About the artist:
Ernest Trova
1927-2009
Missouri native Ernest Trova was a self-trained surrealist, pop art painter, and sculptor, and is best known for his “Falling Man” sculpture series. At age 20, he exhibited Roman Boy, his first major painting, and was awarded first prize in the St. Louis Art Museum’s Missouri Exhibition. Several of his other early art pieces were acquired by both the Guggenheim and the Modern Museum of Art in New York City, and the Tate museum in London. Trova has always insisted on consistency of content in his work, along with persistency of application and personal addiction for getting work done. He considered his entire output a single “work in progress.” In 1976, Trova generously donated 40 pieces to the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, putting it on the map as a popular tourist attraction.
