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Alumna
Artist Displays Works in Campus Center
 Since
graduating from Smith in 1952, artist Constance Bergfors
has carved a career that has taken her to far away locales
and led her to practice in several genres. She began drawing
while still at Smith as a zoology major, and afterward studied
painting at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington,
D.C. Several years later, after having
lived in Italy, then Guinea, West Africa, and Var, France,
Bergfors began her study of sculpture, a form she has worked
with since.
Bergfors’ art
will be on display from Thursday, May 24, through Sunday,
May 27, at the Nolen Gallery in the Campus Center. A reception
will take place in the gallery on Saturday, May 26, from
2:30 to 4 p.m.
Particularly
striking are Bergfors’ wood works – flowing,
wavy sculptures formed by stripping the bark and outer layers
from the original logs, then intricately sanding the resultant
pieces to a fine, complementary collection of standing wooden
statues. To arrive at the final artwork, Berfors uses an
axe and a chainsaw, chisels and several sanding machines
before hand-sanding and finishing the piece with multiple
coats of preservative and oils.
“The process is a very physical task,” she says
of her wood sculptures, “and a very tactile one. Touch
is also part of the poetry. I’ve often thought that
I could still make sculpture, even if I became blind. I could
feel the movement and the spaces.”
 Bergfors
started a collection of African sculpture after her years
in Guinea that foreshadowed her wood sculptures of today.
She has also worked stone and other materials.
“I think about rhythm, space, light and movement,” she
says of her approach to her art. “I want the work to
appear to be ready to move. Each piece should have a special
articulation that seeks to create a mood.”
Bergfors, who lives in Washington,
D.C., has created commissioned works for the U.S. Government,
Temple Sinai, and others. She belongs to the Washington Sculptors
Group in Washington, D.C., and sits on the Board of Overseers
at Corcoran College of Art and Design.
Bergfors’ works
are found in many collections and have been exhibited extensively
throughout the United States and in Europe.
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