Richard working on a plaster maquette in the Williston, Vermont studio, 2019
Sketching Passage, 1983
16mm film still
Passage the day after installation at the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at PepsiCo. Purchase, New York, 1986
16mm film still
Richard Erdman was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1952. He studied at the University of Vermont, where he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 2016. He works from studios in both Williston, Vermont, and Carrara, Italy.
After graduating, Erdman traveled to Carrara, Italy, the world’s finest source of marble. There, he found, as he puts it, “worlds of possibility and wonder in the sublime beauty of ancient stone.” An early apprenticeship with master stonecarvers in Carrara grew into a 35-year relationship with family-run studio SGF Scultura that continues to this day.
In 1983, Erdman was commissioned to contribute a landmark sculpture in travertine to the world-renowned Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at PepsiCo. in Purchase, New York. Passage, carved from a single 350-ton block of stone, keeps company with works by 20th century masters including Alexander Calder, Jean Debuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, and Claes Oldenburg.
Erdman’s marble and bronze sculptures are internationally celebrated for their provocative language of curves and contrast, their dialogue with timescales both geologic and human, and their gesture towards the transcendent power of natural phenomena. His work can be found in 140 museum, public, and private collections spanning six continents, and has been featured in 160 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Notable collections include the United Nations, Museum of Fine Art Boston, Princeton University, The Rockefeller Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at PepsiCo.
Most recently, Erdman has collaborated with leading architectural firms including Richard Meier & Partners and Citterio-Viel on two public projects in Taiwan: Arete, his largest commissioned work since Passage, was unveiled in 2018 in Taipei; Seri Tai, a monumental sculpture of Bardiglio marble, will be installed in the fall of 2019.