Silent Struggle

According to artist Lucas Samaras, Silent Struggle has its origins in a “reawakening” of elements from both his own Greek origins and from the history of art. He likens its design to a doily, delicate and intricate, created out of the indelicate substance weathering Cor-ten steel.  The result, standing 107 inches tall, with a thickness of 13 inches and diameter of six feet, was originally located in the courtyard of the Hale Boggs federal complex in New Orleans.  In 2008, it was transferred to the Court of International Trade in New York City for better cover from the elements.

Born in Kastoria, Greece in 1936, Lucas Samaras immigrated to New Jersey in 1948 and matriculated at Rutgers University (1955-59), where he was influenced by artists Allan Kaprow and George Segal.  He studied at Columbia University from 1959 to 1962 with art historian Meyer Shapiro.  In addition to sculpture, Samaras’s work includes painting, installation, and photography, and has been featured at many venues including: the Art Institute of Chicago; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in New York; Tate Gallery, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.