For artist John Weidman  sculpture has been a fulltime life-long pursuit. His works in stone, metal and wood are in museums, public and private collections throughout the world. 

 

With an interest in geology, anatomy, and technology, John Weidman creates abstract and naturalistic works. Weidman states:”I choose the material for my work to suit the design and form of what I wish to convey, rather than be influenced by the shape and nature of any given material. I don’t choose the shape to warrant the material. I select the material to warrant the form. For me life is contrast. Often I use the relationships of a circle and square, sphere and cube, or straight lines and curved lines as a metaphor to express life as I experience it. My art tends to be ambiguous, and I don’t depend on the viewer to always see what I am presenting. Yes, sometimes we are in parallel, other times not. I anticipate that the viewer will take possession of my work, and experience the moment on their personal terms.”

 

“Well crafted sculptures by internationally recognized artist John M. Weidman leaves an impression on the viewer that is substantial. The sculpture is massive, and yet delicate at the same time. It does not matter if it is realistic, abstract, or non-objective: it conveys a vision and a powerful message. Sometimes the message is of peace of hope or an allegory of life, and other times it is pure joy of the world.” Pamela R. Tarbell, Director of Mill Brook Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Concord, NH.

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“If a particular exhibition succeeds in calling attention to consistencies within an individual artist’s body of work, it can also suggest a larger historical context. Weidman’s sculpture, for example, emerges along a continuum of artistic exploration that began in the early twentieth century. A cadre of  painters and sculptors of that period initiated a studied abandonment of the representational ambitions that had dominated Western art since the ancient Greeks. Their so-called abstract works were hard to put a name to, were often accompanied by factual rather than descriptive titles, and generally had no narrative intention. Yet, the artists themselves believed that their work was capable of articulating the noblest of themes, and there were critics who agreed enough to develop a language with which to justify the approach. There were essays, for example, that claimed for Henry Moore’s sculpture a poetic insight on human goodness and cruelty in a world from which God had allegedly departed; and Alberto Giacometti’s sculptures elicited a consensus that they expressed the loneliness and desire of an industrialized humankind alienated from its authentic self.

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Notwithstanding the capacity of abstraction to paradoxically resemble such things as oversized clothespins, this mode of sculpture at its best demonstrates that chunks of mahogany or marble, sheets of welded steel, wedges of clay, and slabs of granite, when given certain formal qualities, can speak to us of life’s most important ideas, engagements, and desires. In their peculiar visual language, regardless of how dissociated it may be from representation, they are somehow capable of communicating great thoughts and deep emotions.

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John Weidman’s work is seldom totally devoid of extraneous expression. Like Hepworth, Moore, Giacometti and other of his forebears, and in concert with a wide array of like-minded contemporaries, Weidman does depart for the more speculative regions of the intellect. Yet, like them he leaves us with the impression that he is also talking to us through his work about things that touch the heart and stir the emotions.” Sister Theresa Couture, MFA, DMin Professor of Art, Director, Rivier University Art Gallery

 

“It is a rare occurrence to find an sculptor of such high caliber as John Weidman. Coupled with his warmth of character and his unwavering modesty, New England is lucky to have such a great artist.” Batu Siharulidze, associate professor at Boston University’s School of Arts

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