Circular Reflection
1972
Painted steel
Yehiel Shemi
Israel, b. Haifa, 1922
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1980
Shemi created his first pieces in stone and wood while living on a kibbutz in Israel. Employed as a construction worker on the kibbutz, he began to create abstract works using industrial tools and scrap materials. In Circular Reflection, a fine example of his work, the smaller of the two round elements was cut from the larger, resulting in a self-reflective component to the piece. The large, angled armature lends balance and stability to the overall structure. As the structure is viewed from different vantage points, interesting shadows and shapes appear and disappear, like the changing reflection of a moving object.