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Beverly Pepper: Land Art and Monumental Sculptures

Just outside NMWA’s doors are ten large-scale sculptures by Beverly Pepper (b. 1922, Brooklyn; d. 2020, Todi, Italy) that form the newest installation in the New York Avenue Sculpture Corridor, a public art project established by NMWA and the DowntownDC Business Improvement District in 2010. NMWA’s in-gallery presentation shares more about Pepper’s inventive work as a sculptor and land artist.    

Based in Italy for much of her life, Pepper created her abstract sculptures through an intuitive process. Rather than methodically plan a project, she considered her surroundings, studied her mediums, and found that compositions materialized from those impressions. “I feel and see,” she said in 2020, “and things fall from my mind to my hands.” 

Many of the sculptures along New York Avenue and in this gallery evince Pepper’s fascination with the circle and curve, shapes she perceived as enfolding the viewer. Deeply sensitive to history and the effects of time, she also created vertical sculptures that call to mind trees, columns, spires, tools, or standing figures, each suggestive of growth or a forceful spirit. She also molded soil and stone to make amphitheaters, parks, and earthen sculptures.  

Pepper’s groundbreaking work with weathering steel illuminates her belief in the aesthetic power of unconventional materials and processes. She reveled in the effects of oxidation and corrosion, which cause the formation of a vivid layer of rust on steel surfaces. Her embrace of industrial materials and creation of colossal structures upended conventional ideas about women artists that prevailed through the twentieth century.  

Beverly Pepper: Land Art and Monumental Sculptures is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in collaboration with Beverly Pepper Studio LLC and the DowntownDC Business Improvement District. The exhibition is generously supported by the members of NMWA. 

For more information about Pepper’s sculptures on view along New York Avenue, please ask a member of NMWA’s Visitor Services team. 

Non-flash photography is encouraged. Share and tag us on social media #NMWAnow @WomenInTheArts

Beverly Pepper (b. 1922, Brooklyn; d. 2020, Todi, Italy)

Benet, 1984 

Steel and olive wood; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Philip M. Stern, Washington, D.C.  

This early work by Pepper demonstrates her longstanding affinity for both columnar and circular shapes; the sculpture is extended in profile while its top, shaft, base, and the carved wood bead are all perfectly circular in diameter. The slender, undulating shape of Benet recalls tools such as drill bits and hammers, while the sculpture’s stacked forms resemble ancient signs such as the “standards” carried by Roman soldiers into battle.    

Untitled, 1993 

Cast iron; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Tony Podesta Collection  

In the 1980s and ’90s, Pepper combined wedge and spade shapes to create sculptures that look like abstracted tools. “I’ve always worked with tools,” she said. “They’re an extension of my hands. I simply began to transfigure them.” This untitled sculpture resembles a tuning fork or a pair of files, a type of tool that Pepper kept on the work bench in her studio.  

Medea, variation 2, 2015

Weathering steel; On loan from Beverly Pepper Studio LLC 

Pepper’s ability to coax metal into sinuous forms demonstrates her capacity to transform dreamy visualizations into reality. The looping shape of Medea defies expectations about the pliability of steel and also conveys a vivacious, even witty, spirit that is unusual within abstract sculpture. The large-scale version of this artwork is a short stroll from the museum, in the median of New York Avenue between 10th and 9th Streets. 

My Circle, 2008/2023

Weathering steel; Property of a private collection, Los Angeles  

Pepper often created sculptural compositions in a range of sizes. She fabricated her largest works for open, public spaces and smaller versions for enclosed museum galleries as well as private homes and gardens. The monumental version of My Circle is on view close by—on New York Avenue between 10th and 9th Streets. Although the large-scale and gallery-sized editions of My Circle are very similar, this sculpture’s smaller scale enhances the shape’s sense of coiled energy.  

Nuova Twist, Calgary model, 2008 

Weathering steel; On loan from a private collection  

In 2009, Pepper completed her eighteen-foot-tall steel sculpture Nuova Twist for the entrance to Bankers Court, a sustainably designed office building in downtown Calgary, Canada. The large Nuova Twist in Calgary confounds viewers with its sense of swirling movement despite its colossal proportions. This smaller version of the composition invites introspection. The intimate space of the gallery encourages close study of the sculpture’s elegantly tapered surfaces and unexpected combination of flat planes and sweeping arcs.  

Pepper on Film 

The following two films alternate continuously in the video projection in this gallery:  

Sierra Pettengill (b. 1982, New York City) 

Time-fingerprints, 2026 

Film, 17 min., 53 sec.; Courtesy of the artist

This film vividly conveys the wit and gusto that defined Pepper’s character and approach to art-making. Pettengill shares rarely-seen footage of Sculture nella città (Sculpture in the City), the landmark 1962 exhibition in Spoleto, Italy, for which Pepper learned how to weld steel, along with images of the artist at work in her studio sixty year later. Pettengill occasionally layers Pepper’s voice with other sounds and over images, creatively interpreting the sculptor’s interest in the passage and impact of time. 

Fondazione Progetti Beverly Pepper

Beverly Pepper: Land as Art, 2023

Film, 8 min., 39 sec.; Courtesy of Beverly Pepper Studio LLC  

This film shares sweeping views of a selection of Pepper’s land art projects as well as images of the large-scale sculptures now on view outside NMWA’s building. 

Land art projects featured in this film:  

Spazio Teatro Celle, 1992; Pistoia, Italy  

Sol i Ombra Park, 1992; Barcelona, Spain  

Palingenesis, 1994; Zurich, Switzerland  

Walls of Memory, for My Grandmother, 2005; Vilnius, Lithuania

Omphalon, 2002; Cassino, Italy  

Amphitheater, 2011; Panicale, Italy  

Amphisculpture, 2018; L’Aquila, Italy  

Beverly Pepper Park, 2019; Todi, Italy  

Amphisculpture, 1975; Bedminster, New Jersey  

Scalene Monolith, 2010; San Anselmo, California  

Cromlech Glen, 1990; St. Louis, Missouri   

Hawk Hill, 2010; Calgary, Alberta, Canada   

Waccabuc Amphitheater, 2008; Waccabuc, New York  

Sculptures featured in this film:  

Pepper’s “Curvae in Curvae” series, exhibited at the Ara Pacis monument, 2014; Rome, Italy  

Ascensione, 2008; Assisi, Italy  

Curvae in Curvae, 2012  

My Circle, 2008  

Broken Circle, 2011  

Helena, 2014  

Clodia Medea, 2014  

Todi Columns, 1979–2021  

Ptolemy’s Wedge, 2006  

Double Palimpsest, 2012