Jennifer Liese

I'm not a big fan of books documenting a museum's collection; I'd much rather have a book about the museum itself – its history, its building, and its collection – than one focused on individual artworks. Yet on a recent trip – my first – to Storm King Art Center, I could not resist buying the institution's own guide to many of the 100 or so sculptures scattered about its 500 acres in New York's Hudson Valley. This is because the sculptures and the landscape are so intertwined. Only a few of the pieces are site-specific commissions, but all of them have been placed with the landscape in mind; and in many cases the landscape has been shaped with the pieces in mind. So this book about the collection also serves as a book about the grounds, with each sculpture photographed in place, often with the larger context depicted. After all, a visit to Storm King is as much about experiencing the landscape as it is about experiencing the art.… (meer)