Blind Bust III
Diana al Hadid
2012
Bronze and painted stainless steel
Donated by the Bloom Family in 2023
Where is it located in the garden?
Riparian Garden
More about
Diana al Hadid
Born in 1981 in Syria
Known for merging architecture, myth, and figurative associations in fragmented sculptural forms.
Cast bronze combined with painted stainless-steel elements—figural busts intersected by linear steel supports stained with paint, evoking drips or “blood”.
CONTEXT & THEMES
•Blind Bust III appears within al-Hadid’s exploration of classical bust forms disrupted by industrial aesthetics and evocative violence—combining dignity and disintegration in equal measure.
• The painted steel struts cut through the bronze figure, dramatic drips evoking emotional rupture and undermining classical monumentality; her work often critiques honorific portraiture via fragmented forms.
WHY THESE MATTER
• al-Hadid’s large-scale public work consistently transforms space by merging architectural form with sculptural poetics.
• Her installations often reference Middle Eastern and European cultural artifacts— timekeeping devices, maps, grottoes—translated into fibrous, dripping, draping sculptural surfaces.
• In each, she plays with threshold, presence, and absence: walls that leak, figures that seem to erode, structures that hover between interior and ruin.
EXHIBITION HISTORY
• Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas — as part of their “Sightings: Diana Al-Hadid” series (October 22, 2011 – January 15, 2012), where al-Hadid presented new sculptural works for the museum's Corner Gallery. Among these were “Three Blind Busts” (including Blind Bust III) displayed behind Smoke Screen in a composition that played on concealment and presence.
• Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York — in The Vanishing Point (Sept–Oct 2012), al-Hadid’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, she debuted major sculptural works from 2012, including Blind Bust III, alongside architectural-inspired installations and paintings.
• Featured in Art21 New York Close Up (2013) documentary Al-Hadid’s Suspended Reality, where Blind Bust III is presented among key sculptures illuminating her process, material handling, and formal evolution during that period.
OTHER MAJOR PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS
DELIRIOUS MATTER (2018) — MADISON SQUARE PARK, NEW YORK (NYC)
• Her first large-scale public art commission, commissioned by Mad. Sq. Art (Madison Square Park Conservancy), featuring four architecturally scaled sculptures: The Grotto, Gradiva, Citadel, and Synonym.
• The works were later exhibited at Williams College (Williamstown, MA) from 2018– 2019 in a campus-wide display among academic quadrangles and public buildings.
• NOLLI’S ORDERS (2012) — SAN JOSÉ MUSEUM OF ART & MASS MOCA (2000S–2017)
• THE OUTSIDE IN (2022–2023) — PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION, OYSTER BAY, NY
• THE TIME BEING (2022) — FRONT TRIENNIAL / SYRIAN CULTURAL GARDEN, CLEVELAND, OH
“Blind Bust III” was created by Diana Al-Hadid, a woman who was born in Aleppo, Syria, raised in Ohio, schooled at Kent State and who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. She mines ancient histories to process today’s most pressing issues, such as immigration and women’s empowerment, showing that history is not always as fixed as one might think. She uses classical, biblical and mythological stories as a jumping off point for her sculptures, said Poole. For this cast bronze piece, she mixed paint with glue and let it drip down giving the sculpture an appearance of deteriorating. “It’s an interesting use of paint to make sculpture. This is a commentary on how busts are almost always of men and often about power. The deteriorating look suggests that these guys are supposed to be heroes, but heroes fade. It also offers the notion that our heroes don’t always see clearly,” said Poole.”
(Eye on SV, May 2023)