In Memoriam – Sculptor Jay Lagemann (1944 - 2026)

You may not have known Jay Lagemann, who died this week age 82, after a long illness at his home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Martha’s Vineyard, but you may have known his work. We held an outdoor-indoor exhibition of his sculptures at the Academy Art Museum, in Easton, Maryland.

He was a sculptor whose sturdy outline figures, larger than life, are prominently installed around Martha’s Vineyard. When I served as curator at the Academy Art Museum (2011-2020), I saw his work and later met him, at a mutual friend’s house in New York City. Jay became a friend. His best-known work is the 17-foot bronze harpooner poised to strike a swordfish above the dunes of Menemsha, on the Vineyard.

Jay Lagemann, Swordfish Harpooner, 17-feet height, Menemsha Beach, Martha’s Vineyard, MA. Commissioned by the town of Chilmark in 1994 for its tricentennial to honor the island’s rich swordfishing history.

After visiting his house and home studio and sculpture park I offered him an exhibition in Easton, his first solo show. No one was every happier. We curated the exhibition to fit the galleries as well the gardens and courtyard of the Academy. This became Jay Lagemann: The Language of Motion, June 1 – Aug 31, 2014 (Front & Courtyard) and Jay Lagemann: Small Sculptures, June 7 – July 20, 2014 (Selections Gallery, upstairs).

Jay drove the sculptures down himself, adding his Princeton tiger mascot, tied to the roof of his van (not part of the exhibition). He was heading to his alma mater’s reunion, following the exhibition’s opening. Jay had attended Princeton University, concentrating in Mathematics and Art before earning his PhD in Mathematical Logic from MIT. It does not get more abstract than that! Jay realized that he did not want to spend his time working motionless inside four walls and thus became a figurative sculptor.

Jay Lagemann worked with many different materials, including wood, steel, copper, clay, plaster, cement, fiberglass and resins. He travelled all over the world and sailed yachts across the north and south Atlantic and played with dolphins and windsurfed in the large waves on Maui. Stories of his involvement with the filming of Jaws II (“not very successful” in his words) on the Vineyard were endless fun. It is no surprise that when his love of art compelled him to make sculpture, he worked to capture the joy and essence of movement in dance, play, and work, as well as in abstract forms. Jay worked with A.R.T. Foundry in Lancaster, PA, and the TMC Foundry in Thailand.

In Easton, museum visitors may remember his circle of animated dancers “performing” in the courtyard. The Dance, Jay’s new life-sized bronze, was inspired by the Matisse painting.

In the museum’s front yard we placed his Swinging Jenny, a sculpture of a man spinning a young girl around by her hands of which the collection has a smaller, bronze model. Jay looked like his sculptures — lean, strong, intense. A quick impression of his art may seem like animated stick figures. Yet his women are in constant motion with strength, vigor and unmistakable joie de vivre.

In 2013, Jay installed six large pieces on location in Beverly Hills, CA, including a large cast stainless steel Swinging Jenny. A major commission followed, for a massive Swinging Jenny in 2017 in Manhattan. It was commissioned by the Durst Organization for its VIA57 Complex on West 57th Street in Manhattan. It is 18 feet tall and Jenny cantilevered out 22’. It is cast bronze with an engineered armature of stainless steel tubing to stabilize the interior of the sculpture. I attended the revealing of this immense sculpture, a festive event following quite the installation accomplishment of Jay and his team.

Jay Lagemann, Swinging Jenny, 2017, The Durst Organization at VIA57 Complex, West 57th Street, New York, NY

Jay Lagemann (1944 – 2026)

Swinging Jenny, 2014

Bronze

2014.017, Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, Gift of the artist

Lastly, his Reading Dog, a favorite of many, found a local home at the Kent County Library, in Chesterton, MD, where it was installed and unveiled in October 2022 by the artist himself. It was the first of 24 sculptures donated to the Town of Chestertown by dear friends Peter and Hanna Woike.

Jay is survived by his wife, Marianne, brother Kord and family, and daughters Christiana and Jennifer; sons-in-law Barney and Todd, and six grandchildren who all continue to cherish their island home that Jay so loved.

He will be missed.

Anke Van Wagenberg, PhD, is Senior Curator & Head of International Collaborations
American Federation of Arts in New York, NY, and resides in Talbot County, MD