Joel Shapiro (1941–2024), the American sculptor whose deceptively simple wooden figures pulsed with life, tension, and wit, died on Saturday in Manhattan at 83. His daughter, Ivy Shapiro, confirmed his death from acute myeloid leukaemia.
Shapiro’s work—lean, kinetic, and charged with emotional resonance—stood as a quiet rebellion against the cold rigours of Minimalism. His sculptures, often resembling stick figures caught mid-motion, balanced precariously between grace and collapse, exuberance and despair. They were, in essence, human—achingly so.
Born in New York in 1941 to a family of scientists, Shapiro initially bowed to paternal expectation, studying pre-med before abandoning the path for art. A Peace Corps stint in India reshaped his perspective, and upon returning, he found the New York art world enthralled by Minimalism’s industrial cool. Unmoved, he began pressing his fingerprints onto paper in dense, rhythmic patterns—an insistence on the artist’s hand in an era of detachment.
His breakthrough came with miniature cast-iron houses, some no taller than a coffee mug, placed directly on the gallery floor. These fragile, haunting works upended the sculpture’s monumental tradition, whispering of transience and displacement. But it was his later wooden figures—arms outstretched, bodies tilting, frozen in mid-leap or freefall—that cemented his legacy.
Public commissions followed, most notably Loss and Regeneration (1993) at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum—a bronze figure in descent, paired with an upended house. The work distilled grief into form, proving Shapiro’s rare ability to marry abstraction with profound emotional weight.
Wry and sharp-tongued, Shapiro navigated the art world’s shifts with dry humour. “I don’t think it’s problematic to be an angry person in the art world,” he once remarked. “I think it’s problematic if you punch someone.” His career spanned galleries from Paula Cooper to Pace, though he later admitted regret over leaving Cooper’s fiercely loyal fold.
Shapiro’s final major work, ARK (2023), a riot of painted beams suggesting a vessel mid-voyage, now resides at MoMA—a fitting coda for an artist who spent a lifetime balancing the monumental and the intimate, the sturdy and the ephemeral.
His Gallery, Pace, made the following statement: Pace is deeply saddened to announce the passing of Joel Shapiro on June 14, 2025, at age 83. One of America’s most renowned artists and a significant figure in the history of sculpture in the 20th century, Shapiro—who also worked across drawing and printmaking—pushed the boundaries of sculptural form over the past six decades with a body of work distinguished by its dynamism, complexity, and formal elegance.
For over 30 years, it has been my honour to represent Joel Shapiro and to count him as a close friend. His early sculptures expanded the possibilities of scale, and in his mature figurative sculptures, he harnessed the forces of nature themselves. With endless invention, the precariousness of balance expressed pure energy, as did Joel. I will miss him dearly. – Arne Glimcher, Founder and Chairman of Pace Gallery
He is survived by his wife, artist Ellen Phelan; his daughter, Ivy; and two grandchildren. His figures, however, remain—forever leaning, lunging, and reminding us that the most profound truths often come in the simplest forms.
Top Photo Courtesy Pace Gallery