For connoisseurs of art, the Mona Lisa of open-air sculpture gardens is 500-acre Storm King, located in New York’s Hudson Valley. Considering its sprawl, bicycles are available.
Much closer, more intimate and easily walkable, is West Stockbridge’s TurnPark, a 16-acre site of more than 40 artworks. The name is a play on words: to the south, the Massachusetts Turnpike is just a few heartbeats away from the park’s entrance.
“It’s also the idea of coming to a place and turning around and always seeing something new. These grounds are meant to mimic the natural surroundings and be a direct contrast to the turnpike,” Jared Gelormino said prior to a walkabout. He’s an artist and the technical director of TurnPark, now in its eighth year and visited by some 3,000 people annually. Its season runs from the second week in June to the last day of October.
It’s the creation of expatriate Russians Igor Gomberg and his wife Katya Brezgunova. The director explained that the couple had first considered a sculptural site in Europe, however, soon after moving to the U.S.15 years ago they toured this abandoned limestone quarry. Upon viewing the expanse they were captivated by its waterway and dramatic rock formations.
“There was also this ability to sculpt the land, they had free rein,” Gelormino said. Earth moving machinery contoured the landscape. “The hills and flat areas that you’re seeing have been manufactured,” he added.
The Truesdale limestone and marble quarry operated here for 70 years before closing in the 1920s. It was one of 30 such operations in West Stockbridge. The first railroad to be constructed in Berkshire County transported stone, marble and iron from this town to the New York markets. A vestige of that time can be found at a nearby café, the train’s former depot.
A famous troika
It was the late Russia artist Aleksander Konstantinov who designed both TurnPark’s grounds and Gate House entrance. He was internationally known for, among other works, wrapping buildings similar to that other building wrapper – Christo. He added color and designs, however, with installations from Austria to Norway and here in the States. The park’s pure white entrance buildings are joined by an overhead glass catwalk, allowing a narrow beam of light to illuminate the walkway below. The roofline is curved, echoing the profile of the nearby mountains, and the roof itself is accessible, allowing a heightened view of the landscape and the site’s formidable cliff.
Upon first entering, any Surrealist would be overjoyed to see a mammoth, silver 20-foot inflated infant-like form lying supine and bobbing in the wind. “Helios Reborn” is the pneumatic creation of Tommy Nguyen and, as with many of us, it’s fully inflated during the day, deflated at night.
Seated nearby are hammered aluminum caricatures of the physicists Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, both serenely smoking a pipe. The larger-than-life work was created by the Russian artist Vladimir Lemport and is among the sculpture collections that Gomberg brought to this country.
A short distance away is Nikolai Silis’ “Don Quixote,” wherein the Spaniard, modeled in hammered copper, contemplates a daisy.
“I can’t think of a worse material to work with,” Gelormino said. “Yet every plane is shaped to fit together perfectly. It’s considered a masterpiece.”
Joined by the sculptor Vadim Sidur, Silis and Lemport, when in their youth, formed a famous troika that rebelled against the rigid mandates of Soviet art.
“You couldn’t teach art back then unless it was Soviet Socialist Realism,” the director said. “So Silis had a secret studio for artists.”
Silis, in fact, inspired Gomberg and Brezgunova to build TurnPark.
While in this lower meadow you confront a towering cliff and may take note of a climber in silhouette. Not far off is a fragment of Konstantinov’s “Wandering Stones.”
From a distance the aluminum construction appears as a gleaming mineral shard, incongruous to the surroundings. A colony of these shards can also be found on the entrance roof and close-up, the creations may appear to some as an amalgam of aluminum screen frames, yet they were customized for the artwork.
Monumental works
Traveling a path to the upper meadow you’ll note abstract feminine forms floating above the woodland floor and a fantastical ceramic abstract suggesting underwater flora. The keen-eyed will also note accents of 24-carat gold leaf amidst the rockwork.
The focal point of the meadow is a dominating ceramic work, “Earth and Sky,” by Sergei Isupov, composed of two faces in a kiss. The artist used 800 pounds of clay to sculpt the work onsite over a course of two weeks and it stands 8 feet high. An elaborate “petal” kiln, built by the Estonian master builder Andres Allik over several weeks, surrounded the artwork. The firing of the ceramic, requiring a full day, created a heat of 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Some 500 visitors looked on for the sculpture’s debut as the kiln was disassembled and the towering ceramic, white hot, became visible.
“I knew I’d be impressed,” Gelormino said, “but I didn’t think I’d have my mind blown. It was so white you could barely look at it.”
A few paces away is the park’s marble amphitheater, a venue for film showings, celebrations, weddings and contemplation.
Directly across the meadow are two tall, hollow, layered walls of weathered, rust-hued Corten steel. “Puerto” is the creation of the late artist Gene Montez Flores. The mammoth uprights are separated by a narrow aperture, itself a monumental advertisement for cutting back on sweets and pastries if you hope to squeeze through.
The fine edges of the metal, appearing like brush strokes, were cut with an acetylene torch.
“There’s an elegance to this piece,” the director said, describing his impression of the work. “It’s the mountains. It’s the clouds. It’s female. It’s male. It’s what modern art is supposed to be.”
There are three interactive artworks in the Upper Meadow. Among them is a mini-forest of upright, bendable plastic rods, which tots can scamper through, one of Gelormino’s four works to be found here.
Nearby is an elegant arch of steel allowing seating for one person, or, if you’re on really intimate terms, two. “Arc II” by Ann Jon is an acoustical curiosity. When two people face one another and converse, their voices will be oddly altered.
Vadim Kosmatschof’s “Heliograph 2” is a painted and stainless steel sculpture mirroring light with moveable shiny panels. You can direct reflections onto the meadow which small children and leashed dogs often enjoy chasing.
As homage to the nearby Mass Pike, the gatehouse interior gallery displays large photographic abstractions of the highway created by John Clarke. Taking long exposures of the drive and then using a computer to flip colors or reduce them to black and white, the artist has created what he calls “purposeful blur.” The images may resemble hallucinations of energy or possibly the results of a terrifying MRI scan.
As an adjunct to the gallery’s atmosphere, a nearby speaker adds the ambient sounds of the nearby motorway.
As with any open-air sculpture museum, TurnPark continues to grow, adding new pieces annually. One is soon on the way direct from Storm King, a work by the artist Charles Ginnever.
Co-founder Katya Brezgunova best defined the site’s aim. “The most important thing for us is to inspire,” she said recently. “To be a place where people can experiment. To be like a lab space for different artistic experiments.”
TurnPark is open Wednesday through Monday (closed Tuesday), from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It closes for the season on Oct. 31. Admission is $14 for adults, and free for children under 12. Group rates are also available.