Valerie Fletcher: A native of Dallas, Texas, Juan Hamilton was profoundly affected by his exposure to Zen Buddhism, which he discovered during a trip to Japan in 1970. The next major impact on his life and work came three years later when he moved to New Mexico and became the studio assistant to the venerable modern painter, Georgia O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe had become famous in the 1920s for her simplified stylized depictions of flowers and other natural forms. In working for her, Hamilton discovered the evocative power of simple curving forms, but he carried it to a much further degree. O’Keeffe was never really an abstractionist; Hamilton is.

The sculpture here, Curve and Shadow, [No. 2] from 1985, seems to be a simple black arc of burnished bronze reaching from the ground upward and then back to the ground. And while it is seemingly simple, it is not a straightforward curve. Yes, it may be a segment of a circle, but it is not that simple. It has a strong upward movement on one side and a gentle gradual slope on the other. The sculpture is meant to be seen in changing light conditions that can happen by being out in sunlight or the movement of the sun changes, or it can be from the viewer walking around the piece, walking forward and back, close up and at a distance. So even if the light source is fixed, the viewer can change his location to change his perceptions. The sculpture was burnished black, finely, finely finished and sanded many, many times to a super gloss, so that in the strong light the shadow underneath it appears black. The sculpture itself above appears black. They can then unify and become a single form, the black shadow and the black sculpture; or in a different light source, the shadow is very ephemeral, it’s pale, it’s evanescent, and the contrast between substance and shadow can spark us to think about the questions of what is substance in our lives and in reality around us. Hamilton wanted his pieces to convey a sense of harmony, of calm, of inner piece, the essence of a Zen contemplative mode.