1962 Venice Biennale
In 1962, Paris gallery owner, Iris Clert, rents a Grand Canal palazzo belonging to Count Leonardo Arrivabene Valenti Gonzagal for her Piccola Biennale. Credited with representing Yves Klein, Tinguely, and Harold Stevenson, she said of Stevenson “A new Michelangelo, I adore him” (LIFE magazine, July 30, 1962 International Edition). LIFE tends to agree with her and prints an expansive spread about Iris Clert and two photographs of the “artist with flair” and “dapper” Harold Stevenson.
The Piccola was a success and featured several of Stevenson’s signature pieces – body parts in bigger than life size scale. Fingers and toes, eyes, and navels, feet and ears. Stevenson elevated the human body to beyond an object and invited the viewer to see the unassuming parts in new perspectives. Notably, the portrait of Lord Timothy Willoughby was constructed of 27 individual pieces.
Philip Johnson Art Collection
Architect Philip Johnson maintained a New York City apartment one story below Stevenson’s apartment in the late 1950s. According to LIFE, Johnson purchased one of Stevenson’s paintings at the 1962 Biennale. Which one was it? We are not sure. If you know which painting Johnson purchased in 1962, please let us know.
According to MoMA, Johnson also purchased Fingers, Left Hand, a 1963 Stevenson. The piece was exhibited in the 1964 Richard Feigen exhibitions for Harold Stevenson in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Johnson donated the piece to MoMA in 1969, according to the 1998 book, Philip Johnson and the Museum of Modern Art by John Elderfield.
Finger of God was purchased at the 1962 Venice Biennale. It is currently held in the permanent collection of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Photo by Lori Duckworth.