Gateway 1964

This bronze sculpture is called Gateway, made by Seymour Lipton. It doesn't have a date, but let's just imagine the artist constructing the form bit by bit, welding and shaping it. I can see Lipton coaxing the metal into these rough shapes, maybe even fighting with it a little bit. He’s made these craggy surfaces – they have such a great, uneven texture, don’t they? Like tree bark. You can imagine him working away, his mind on something – philosophy, politics, who knows? I can see him scratching and scraping away at the metal, building it up in layers, making something that feels weighty, solid, and permanent. The way he’s positioned that ball inside the gateway makes me think of the work of other sculptors like Barbara Hepworth, always exploring the relationship between interior and exterior forms. And of course, there's always Brancusi looming in the background. These artists are all in conversation, even if they don’t know it. In the end, it’s up to us to bring our own experiences and associations to the work.