Donald Lipski

Donald Lipski (born May 21, 1947) is an American sculptor best known for his installation work and large-scale public works. Building Steam No. 317, 1982–85, crystal ball and intercom. (Photo: Dorothy Zeidman)

Early life and education Donald Lipski was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1947. He was raised in the northern suburb of Highland Park, the son and grandson of bicycle dealers. Although his first welded sculptures as a teen won him The Scholastic Art Award in high school, he was a history major and anti-war activist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning a B.A. in American History in 1970. In Madison, Lipski discovered ceramics while working with well-known ceramics artist Don Reitz. He then pursued an MFA in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1973, where he studied with Richard DeVore and Michael Hall. Lipski taught at the University of Oklahoma from 1973 to 1977, when he moved to New York. Building Steam No. 386 (The Book of Knowledge), 1985. Collection: Yale University Art Gallery. (Photo: Dorothy Zeidman)

Art career Lipski attained growing recognition with his early installation Gathering Dust, which comprised thousands of tiny sculptures pinned to the wall, first at New York gallery Artists Space in 1978, and soon after in Museum of Modern Art as part of the Project series. In 1978 he won the first of three National Endowment for the Arts grants, followed by a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1993, and the Rome Prize of The American Academy in Rome in 2000. He is permanently conserved in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Art Institute of Chicago, and dozens of other museums.

Lipski's installation works continued in the 1990s with The Bells, at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, The Starry Night, at Capp Street Project, San Francisco, Pieces of String Too Short to Save, in the Grand Lobby of The Brooklyn Museum, NY), and The Cauldron at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York.

In recent years, Lipski has focused his efforts on creating large-scale works for public spaces. Some of his most recognizable works include The Yearling, outside the Denver Public Library (originally exhibited by The Public Art Fund at Doris Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York, 1997), Sirshasana, hanging in the Grand Central Market, Grand Central Terminal in New York City, and F.I.S.H. at the San Antonio River Walk, in Texas. There are twenty others across the U.S.

In 2012, Lipski was living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is represented by Galerie Lelong in New York.

Public collections

Asian American Art Center, New York Brooklyn Museum, New York, New York Chicago Art Institute Cincinnati Art Museum Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana Jewish Museum, New York, New York Kansas City Public Library's Plaza Branch, Kansas City, Missouri Landmarks (University of Texas at Austin), Austin, Texas Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri Miami Art Museum Menil Collection, Houston, Texas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Minneapolis Museum of Fine Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Museum of Modern Art, Miami New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh Raymond Nasher Sculpture Collection, Dallas, Texas Panza Collection, Italy Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, Arizona Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York Witherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC Yale University Art Gallery