Undulating, curling, and twisting, the paper-thin forms of One enact a gravity-defying dance in aluminum. The sculpture’s elaborate shapes, both delicate and dense, recall the Baroque art that impressed George Sugarman during his travels in Europe. Reflecting on the period during which he made One, Sugarman noted, “All through the ’60s and ’70s I had no label. I wasn’t Pop. I wasn’t Minimal. And ‘Maximal’ was a word that wasn’t used. Yet I was a Maximalist. I wanted to put every-thing in my work, even the kitchen sink.”

Inspired in part by the flat, unmodulated color used by the modernist painters Henri Matisse and Stuart Davis, Sugarman often painted his cutout forms in bright colors. In One, a dark red permeates the lace-like white. “In my sculpture,” he noted, “the color is just as important as form and space. It is used to articulate the sculpture as much as form articulates the sculpture.” As with many of his contemporaries, Sugarman’s appreciation of jazz music shows up visually in the rhythm, pacing, and form of his sculptural work.