Charles Ginnever, “Koronas,” 1978

Charles Albert Ginnever (August 28, 1931 – June 16, 2019) was an American sculptor best known for his unique, perspective-warping abstract metal installations. 

Born in the San Francisco suburb of San Mateo, California, eight-year-old Ginnever discovered his love of sculpture during a visit to the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition, a celebration of physical exhibits and engineering. Upon seeing the works of many influential sculptors of the time—the likes of Marino Marini and Aristide Maillol— Ginnever quickly knew the path he wanted to pursue. In 1953, he traveled to Paris to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, one of France’s oldest and most prestigious art universities. After two years spent traveling and absorbing the arts of Europe, he returned to the United States to study at the California School of Fine Arts, now known as the San Francisco Art Institute. Upon the completion of his BA, a week-long cross-country road trip with fellow sculptor Mark di Suvero landed Ginnever at Cornell University, where he simultaneously worked as a professor and completed his MFA in 1959.

Ginnever’s affinity for metal materials and optical illusions solidified his reputation as a sculpting force to reckon with. His work even challenged photographers, who struggled to find the proper angles to do the artist’s spatially dynamic sculptures justice on film. To truly digest one of Ginnever’s perspective-warping work in person, one must walk around it to fully understand the various forms one of his pieces can take.

Ginnever continued making his famed sculptures in his Vermont studio until his death in 2019. 

His 1978 steel sculpture, Koronas, was gifted to the Neuberger Museum of Art and found its current home on the Purchase College, SUNY campus after being briefly located at SUNY Albany where it had been on view during that campus’s 175th anniversary.

Written by:
Jamai Williams, Class of 2026 (Psychology)
Neuberger Curatorial Intern, Fall 2023