Three dimensional mixed-media sculpture, 1981. 230x195x335 mm; 9xx151/2x131/4 inches. Ex-collection the Louis Meisel Gallery, New York. Exhibited at the Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL, The Goldstrom Family Collection, March 26-May 21,1989.
Wolfson avoids figures and creates scenarios populated only by objects with some connections to people. The viewer knows there is a story behind the objects, but it is unclear. The artist grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn where such scenes were the norm, however, he does not prefer to discuss the origins or meanings of his imagery.It would seem, though, that this aura of the outsider peering into a fascinating but unexplained world might mimic the feelings of a young boy touring the streets of the city, glimpsing here and there bits and pieces of the thousands of lives hidden behind its facades. In fact, these urban scenes were so ingrained in his memory that he was able to recreate Subway, his first piece, entirely from memory and imagination while he was living and working in California. His visual recall of the subway was so complete that he could reproduce the exact configuration of rivets on the wall. The subway has remained a fruitful area of exploration for Wolfson. Of the 53 works he has created to date, almost half of them feature subway cars, platforms, or entrances. Linda Chase, Alan Wolfson/Miniature Environments, New York, 1989.
