Prior to 1966, if artists wanted to create works larger than their studios or metalworking abilities allowed, they had to turn to industrial manufacturers (usually steel fabricators or boat builders). But the opening that spring of Lippincott, Inc. changed that - and the direction of American art in the process.
To serve the growing need for expert fabrication, the Lippincott foundry opened in North Haven, Connecticut, in 1966. Lippincott was an all-in-one sculpture production center that put the tools of industrial fabrication in the hands of artists, allowing them to produce at a scale they had previously only dreamt of on paper. Over the years of the shop's operation from 1966 to 1994, Lippincott, Inc. has produced sculptures by nearly one hundred artists.
The shop's founders, Donald Lippincott and Roxanne Everett, meticulously documented the working processes of some of the most important American artists of the twentieth century, including Claes Oldenburg, Louise Nevelson, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, and Barnett Newman. Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s presents over 300 photographs of artists and their iconic large-scale works including Newman's Broken Obelisk, Indiana's Love, Oldenburg's Geometric Mouse, and Rosenthal's Alamo, many of which have been previously unseen.
