Philip Haas: The Four Seasons

Admission is free.

Philip Haas, a contemporary artist and filmmaker, has created four monumental portrait busts titled The Four Seasons. Haas’ 15-foot-tall sculptures are 3-dimensional interpretations of the Italian Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s portrait series of the same name.

As in Arcimboldo’s paintings, the physical features of the four sculpted figures are rendered in botanical forms appropriate to each season. Spring is a profusion of brightly colored flowers. The man’s cheeks are rose blossoms, petals hang from tulip earlobes and he wears a coat of green leaves with a collar of daisies. In contrast, Winter suggests the barrenness of that time of year through the figure’s headdress of twisted tree limbs and ivy and face of a gnarled grey tree trunk devoid of foliage.

The Four Seasons acknowledge nature’s rhythmic cycles and yet as sculptural portraits of people, they further represent the natural aging process from youth to old age.

This exhibition is supported by the Hall Family Foundation and the Donald J. Hall Initiative.