Daniel Brush: Thinking about Monet

Sculptures-as-meditations: Brush rearticulates Monet’s magnificent lightwork in palm-sized objects

Early in life, American painter, sculptor and jeweler Daniel Brush (born 1947) discounted Monet’s work wholesale—that is, until the pivotal day he saw an 8-by-10 transparency that a collector and friend was considering acquiring. This encounter sparked an obsession with the light Monet so masterfully captured through oil paint. Thinking about Monet contains 60 of the more than 100 steel sculptures Brush created—all of which are meditations on light. The artist hand-carved the same steel for all of his palm-sized pieces, but each one articulates distinct properties of color and light. Mesmerizing in the intricacy and daring of their fabrication, Brush's objects bear comparison with the work of historical masters.

This small, jewel-like book is covered in printed silk cloth, and all the sculptures are reproduced at their original size. Nicolas Bos, president of Van Cleef & Arpels, contributes a short foreword to the book.