LIPPOLD, RICHARD

born May 3, 1915, Milwaukee American sculptor of intricate, abstract wire constructions. He studied at the University of Chicago and trained in industrial design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduating in 1937, he established an industrial-design studio in Milwaukee. In 1942, under the influence of Naum Gabo and Constructivism, he began creating delicate, weblike sculptures from brass, nickel, gold, and silver wire. Stretched taut between focal points and axes, these reflective rays describe an ideal and infinitely inclusive geometry. In some pieces (e.g., Gemini II, 1968), metal tubes or other forms are threaded onto the wires in complex patterns. Most of Lippold's works are designed for suspension by anchor wires in the upper reaches of large rooms; Variations in a Sphere No. 10: The Sun (195356; gold wire), commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, is a major example. Constructions from the 1960s appeared in all kinds of public buildings: Flight (Pan American Building, New York City, 1963); Baldacchino (St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, 1967); Ad Astra (Mall Entrance of the Space Museum, Washington, D.C., 1976); and in the Atrium Tower Building, New York City, 1981.