I believe that the artist, in his peak of creation, makes a kind of homage to God, to the beauty of nature and to the miracle of being alive. — Leonardo Nierman
Born in Mexico City in 1932, Leonardo Nierman Mendelejis (known as Leonardo Nierman) aspired to be a professional violist when he was a child. So great was this desire that Nierman devoted twenty years of his early life to studying music both privately and at Mexico’s National Conservatory of Music. Despite his love of, and affinity for, music, Nierman ended up studying physics and mathematics and, later, earned his MA in Business Administration from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. It was while he was enrolled in Business School that Nierman, a wholly self-taught artist, began to paint. Eventually, his artistic repertoire grew to encompass not only painting but also sculpture, tapestry, glasswork, and engraving. Whatever his expressive medium, all of Nierman’s works reflect his deep interest in music, Nature, and the Cosmos.
While Nierman uses vibrant colors in his paintings, Fantasy, like many of his sculpture, is finished in mirrored silver. Placed in an outdoor setting, the luminous sculpture reflects it surroundings; a visual sleight of hand that adds dimensionality to the work’s twisting form. It also reflects viewers as they stand before it; a vantage point that allows one to enjoy the play of reflected light on Fantasy’s surface. Influenced by the Abstract and Surrealist movements, Nierman’s lyrical sculpture resembles a bird about to take flight. Two sweeping “wings” extend far beyond the sculpture’s pedestal, their aerodynamic curves frozen in space. The work’s “body” is similarly animated and brims with energy and movement. A soaring and triumphant form, Fantasy, which was generously donated by Paul and Libby Yellin, is—appropriately enough—installed near the Frost School of Music.
