Ailene Fields
Reaching For The Sky
Fine Art finds a home in New Jersey Skylands Museum - a new home for fine art in Lafayette, New Jersey founded by Neil Zukerman and Ailene Fields
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eil Zukerman was passionate about art and introducing it to new audiences. In addition to owning the CFM Gallery in New York City, he participated in a number of collaborative projects that connected him with artists from all over the world. Neil believed that art was only enjoyable if it challenged people and that it can come from anywhere. Skylands Museum reflects his adoration for art and its versatility, Every project that Ailene and Neil have committed to, including the Skylands Museum of Art, has a personal, spiritual, and communal value that is meant to connect us further to the best parts of ourselves. To reconnect with nature, our inner dreamer, and kindness towards ourselves and others. We all sometimes struggle in the day to day, and their hope is that the museum will you give you a moment to breathe and enjoy the beautiful gift of our lives. Every artist has a unique story and follows a personal journey through various aspects of life, and Ailene is no different. Her mission is aptly captured in her own words, “I am a sculptor. I express myself through my sculptures. They say things that my words cannot. But I will try words. Carving stone is different from most other forms of sculpture. It is a process of finding what has been trapped within since time immemorial and allowing it to reveal itself to the world. For much of my career, what I liberated were animal and human figures caught in particular moments of reflection that revealed some essential aspect of their being.” David Fields first met Ailene more than half a century ago, when she was Eileen Rubin, ten years old living in Brooklyn. “I was twelve,” he recalls. “She knew immediately that I was to be hers. She’s that way, always has been. She gets it — whatever it is — intuitively, at a glance…in life and in her sculpture. Her aim…as a sculptor, is to capture the essence of her subject in a moment…that contains their essence.”
Dr. David Fields, Ailene Fields, Neil Zukerman Fine Art Magazine • Summer 2022 • 43