The life of H. Peter Stern was intrepid, his interests eclectic, and legacy impacting. A German Jew who fled the Nazis in Romania to settle in the US, he studied literature and history at Harvard, was a trained mime, a dabbler in international affairs, an amateur violinist, a connoisseur of Indian food and music, and a reluctant businessman. How did he then end up spearheading the biggest sculpture park in the world? Through the help of his father-in-law Ralph E Ogden, an industrialist who owned the Star Expansion facility that made metal fasteners in Mountainville, New York.
Back in 1958, Ogden bought a 180-acre estate with a Normandy- style chateau, nestled in the valley between the Schunnemunk and Storm King Mountains, around 90 km north of New York City. He intended to use it as a space to exhibit work by artists local to the Hudson River valley. By the time it was opened in 1960 he had changed the brief to make it a sculpture garden. With the acquisition of 13 important works by the late American sculptor and artist David Smith in 1967, the Storm King Sculpture Park really took off.
Many iterations later, including a fillip in landscaping by architect William Rutherford and the donation of large acreages of land surrounding the original grounds, the majestic Storm King Park presides over its breathtaking works of art, some of which were created with the specific landscape in mind, or for which hills and vales were erected. Stern, who took over Star Expansion and the running of the park from his father-in-law in the late ’60s, was the man most responsible for the expansion to its current 500 acres of woodlands, undulating hills, carefully planted trees, lush meadows and the Museum Hill that stands at its centre, with remnants of the original chateau serving as the main building on the grounds. Not to mention the acquisition of works by over a 100 artists, including Andy Goldsworthy, Maya Lin, Zhang Huan, Mark di Suvero, Isamu Noguchi and Ursula von Rydingsvard, that are sprinkled across these carefully manicured lands with enough room for each of them to breathe.
As Stern told Harvard magazine in 1999, “Works of art should not be seen in isolation, they should be seen in a beautiful context.” While this context is sometimes scoffed at by modern art critics who feel that an urban setting better represents the more politically-inclined work of contemporary installation and sculpture-based creators, a hike through the often fascinating works displayed at Storm King may lead you to believe that the sylvan setting enhances and delineates the work of a diverse group of artists rather than retracting from it.
Hari Adivarekar is an independent photojournalist based in Bengaluru , Mumbai