Roger Phillips

Roger Phillips (1930-2022) is a widely respected American kinetic sculptor whose refined constructions in stainless steel and painted aluminum have earned him a substantial place within the American tradition of moving sculpture. Born in New York City, Phillips began his lifelong engagement with metalwork unusually early. At the age of twelve he took a position as a blacksmith's helper on Long Island, and he has continued to work in metal ever since. This early hands-on training gave him a deep practical understanding of the material that would remain foundational to his mature sculptural practice.

Phillips's first serious exposure to art came at the Woodstock Country School in Vermont, where he studied with Francis Foster, a teacher whose training at Black Mountain College led him to run his classes on the Bauhaus model. This formative experience introduced Phillips to the rigorous modernist principles that would shape his later work. He earned his degree from Bard College in 1953, and he continued his artistic education with drawing and design at the New School and metal fabrication at the Jewish Museum in New York. Phillips has served as a past president of the Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America, and his studio and workshop are located in Stuyvesant, New York, about one hundred miles north of the city.

A Constructivist in sensibility, Phillips produces kinetic sculptures whose smooth motion, bright color, and refined geometric structure have earned comparison with Alexander Calder, George Rickey, and Ellsworth Kelly. His engineering approach is distinctively his own, however: unlike other kinetic sculptors who suspend moving elements from the top, use pendulum action, or connect elements at the bottom, Phillips secures his moving components at both the top and the bottom, allowing each element to complete a full three-hundred-sixty-degree orbit around a vertical axis. This produces a distinctive motion in which forms seemingly disappear and reappear as they revolve, allowing views of the surrounding landscape through the negative space as the sculptures turn.

The contrast between the rigidity of the frame and the fluidity of the moving elements gives the work its particular character. The sculptures appear light and airy as their glossy colored surfaces reflect the natural surroundings in which they are installed. A significant portion of Phillips's practice consists of large-scale outdoor commissions, and smaller versions of his sculptures suitable for interior spaces have been produced in limited editions. His work is held in private and public collections throughout the United States.