Olympic Sculpture Park
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The Olympic Sculpture Park is a public park in Seattle, Washington that opened on January 20, 2007.[1]
The park consists of a nine acre outdoor sculpture museum and beach.[2] The park was designed by Weiss/Manfredi Architects, along with Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture and other consultants. It is situated at the northern end of the Seattle seawall and the southern end of Myrtle Edwards Park. The former industrial site was occupied by the oil and gas corporation Unocal until the 1970s and subsequently became a contaminated brownfield before the Seattle Art Museum proposed to transform the area into one of the only green spaces in Downtown Seattle. The park is operated by the Seattle Art Museum, which also operates an expanded main branch at First and University Streets and the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill.
As a public outdoor sculpture park with both permanent and visiting installations, it is a unique institution in the United States.[3]
As part of constructing the sculpture park 5.7 million dollars were spent transforming 1000 feet of the seawall and underwater shoreline inside Myrtle Edwards park. A three level underwater slope was built with 50,000 tons of riprap. The first level of the slope is large rocks to break up waves. The second is a flat "bench" level to recreate an intertidal zone. The lower level is covered with smaller rocks designed to attract sealife and large kelp. It is hoped this will help revitalize juvenile salmon from the Duwamish River and act as a test for future efforts.[4]
[edit] Pieces
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[edit] Neukom Vivarium
- Artist
- Mark Dion
- Year
- 2006
- Material
- Dead tree in a greenhouse, living plants, 80 feet long.
This living installation nurse log is in a climate controlled incubator room. The display includes magnifying glasses to view its decay and the life arising from it. It was originally titled Seattle Vivarium but the artist was asked to rename it to reflect the generous family that paid for it.
[edit] Typewriter Eraser, Scale X
- Artists
- Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
- Year
- 1998-1999
- Material
- Stainless steel and fiberglass
Loaned to the park through 2009 by Paul Allen, this sculpture is part of the artists series of taking mundane objects to a massive scale.
[edit] Wake
- Artist
- Richard Serra
- Year
- 2004
- Material
- Steel
Wake was first shown at the Gagosian Gallery but with this park in mind as its eventual destination. Each piece is structurally composed of two huge sheets of curved steel that are mirror images of each other (and a lid piece) put together to form what Serra calls "Ws" or "W units" and sometimes "Wiggles" (after the letter "W"). Serra said that by creating a piece 125 feet long he wants people to walk among it and participate in it, rather than just observe it. When walking through the structure with Serra, he will point out the shapes formed in the air between the steel pieces as much as the pieces themselves and that the shapes formed change as you walk through it. He says, "The subject of this piece is not its image and it is not the steel. It is you. Your experience in walking through becomes the content."[5]
[edit] Split
- Artist
- Roxy Paine
- Year
- 2003
- Material
- Stainless steel
Split is a stainless steel tree from the artist's attempts to create artificial landscapes.
[edit] Curve XXIV
- Artist
- Ellsworth Kelly
- Year
- 1981
- Material
- Rusting steel and concrete
[edit] Riviera
- Artist
- Anthony Caro
- Year
- 1971-1974
- Material
- Rusted then varnished steel
[edit] Sky Landscape I
- Artist
- Louise Nevelson
- Year
- 1983
- Material
- Aluminum
[edit] Bunyon's Chess
- Artist
- Mark di Suvero
- Year
- 1965
- Material
- Wood and steel
di Suvero created this piece for local art connoisseur Bagley Wright who generously donated it to the park. Wright wanted a large sculpture for his backyard and commissioned di Suvero to create it during the summer of 1965. The Wrights gave di Suvero their home for several months while they vacationed. When they returned di Suvero had not worked on the commission. The Wrights returned on another evening to find di Suvero and his friends in the backyard partying with the Wrights wine collection, but had created this sculpture. The Wrights angrily told the partying group, "skedaddle".
[edit] Schubert Sonata
- Artist
- Mark di Suvero
- Year
- 1992
- Material
- Painted steel
Part of a series created by the artist to honor musical composers. This piece was formerly installed at Benaroya Hall.
[edit] Persephone Unbound
- Artist
- Beverly Pepper
- Year
- 1965
- Material
- Bronze
On loan to the park.
[edit] Eagle
- Artist
- Alexander Calder
- Year
- 1971
- Material
- Steel painted orange
This sculpture is a soaring piece 39 feet tall. It is a gift via special donation specifically for its purchase. Originally installed in Texas, it was moved to Philadelphia, and then the Seattle Art Museum made arrangements to acquire it. It was in Seattle several years before it could be installed in the park and had a temporary installation in Volunteer Park.
[edit] Perre's Ventaglio III
- Artist
- Beverly Pepper
- Year
- 1967
- Material
- Enamel and steel
Made of highly reflective material the artist intended to create a multi-dimensional structure almost like an optical illusion.
[edit] Bench
- Artist
- Roy McMakin
- Year
- 2004
- Material
- formed concrete
Bench is a bench.
[edit] Seattle Cloud Cover
- Artist
- Teresita Fernandez
- Year
- 2006
- Material
- Glass
This piece is a glass part of a pedestrian bridge structure linking two parts of the park. It includes a layer of photographic material between layers of glass. It is designed to catch light during the daytime creating vibrant reflections and images; at night it glows by artifical lighting.
[edit] Father and Son
- Artist
- Louise Bourgeois
- Year
- 2004-2006
- Material
- Steel, aluminum, bronze, water
Father and Son is a fountain installed where the sculpture park meets Myrtle Edwards Park. The sculpture includes models of a nude father and son reaching for each other but the other is obscured by the water. The artist claims the nudity and obscurity represent vulnerability and the way male familial relationships deteriorate. The piece was commissioned as an estate gift after the death of Stu Smailes, an executive of Safeco. Smailes specified a million dollars to the city of Seattle on the condition that it would purchase public art including realistic, life size, and nude male figures. The city gave the money to the Seattle Art Museum, which commissioned this piece.
[edit] Eye Benches I, II, and III
- Artist
- Louise Bourgeois
- Year
- 1996
- Material
- Black granite from Zimbabwe
These benches are a gift of the artist which she included with Father and Son. At 97 years old at the time of installation, the artist said she could not come to Seattle from New York to see the benches and fountain together saying "I only travel in time, not space."
[edit] Stinger
- Artist
- Tony Smith
- Year
- 1999
- Material
- Steel painted black
Stinger is a 33 foot long, six foot tall square of six foot wide steel square with an opening. It was designed by the artist in the 1960s and exhibited as a painted plywood structure. While Smith died in 1980 he left behind designs on paper for sculptures never created. His wife set out to have many of the sculptures made. It is numbered and credited to Tony Smith.
[edit] Wandering Rocks
- Artist
- Tony Smith
- Year
- 1967
- Material
- Steel painted black
These five pieces are designed to be evocative of a zen garden, specifically those at Ryōan-ji. In the sculpture park they are set astride the path leader to Stinger.
[edit] Criticisms
As soon as the park opened it was also criticized by the public for two policies that seemed to conflict with the easy public accessibility of an open air museum: "Don't Touch" and "Limited Photography". The park hires security officers to enforce these rules.
On its weekend opening, both major local papers, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran articles about the museum's "Don't Touch" policy.[6] [7] The policy was instituted by Chief Conservator Nicholas Dorman to protect the pieces from damage, not just from scratching and vandalism, but long term changes caused by oils left by human contact. The largest and one of the most accessible pieces, Wake by Richard Serra, has a delicate patina of rust that could be protected by a coating but has not because it conflicts with the museum's ideal to present and preserve the piece in its purest form. After the weekend opening the piece had a subversive finger scratching saying "DON'T TOUCH!".
One of the park's prominent pieces, Typewriter Eraser, Scale X by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, is on three-year loan from its owner, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.[8] Unlike the other sculptures in the park, there was initially a posted sign indicating that the public does not have permission to photograph this sculpture[9], in spite of its current position alongside Elliot Avenue a major street running through the park. After some criticism, the prohibition was lifted, with a Seattle Art Museum spokesperson claiming it was "a misinterpretation of the loan agreement".[10] The text prohibiting photography was subsequently covered up with masking tape.
Much of the sculpture comes from local collections or were specifically commissioned for the park. Some of the donated pieces have been referred to as the "equivalent of an unwanted birthday present left on the curb for charity." By commissioning sculptures, the park has been criticized for placing art that does not have "staying power" by artists who have not proven their worth. The piece Stinger ostensibly by artist Tony Smith has caused debate among artists and critics because it was created twenty years after his death.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ Seattle Art Museum press release
- ^ Seattle Parks Department official site
- ^ Sheila Farr, Seattle Times art critic (July 25, 2006). "There's nothing else like this in the country" for outdoor art, says artist. Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
- ^ Seattle Times Research with the Seattle Art Museum (15 January 2007). The seawall: Changing the landscape under water. Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
- ^ "A Conversation with Richard Serra about his sculpture 'Wake'", video.
- ^ Danny Westneat, Seattle Times (31 January 2007). Getting touchy about art. Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.
- ^ Regina Hackett, Seattle PI Art Critic (27 January 2007). Olympic Sculpture Park: It's not a hands-on experience. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
- ^ Percy Allen (6 July, 2006). Allen loans massive "Eraser". Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
- ^ Jen Graves (19 January 2007). The Stranger Arrested. Slog (The Stranger's blog). Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
- ^ Jen Graves (22 January 2007). Sculpture Park Hangover. Slog (The Stranger's blog). Retrieved on 2007-02-19.
- ^ Sheila Farr, Seattle Times art critic (24 January 2007). A critic's-eye view of the new Olympic Sculpture Park. Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
[edit] External links
- Seattle Parks Department official site
- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sculpturepark/
- Olympic Sculpture Park 360 Virtual Tour
- Presentation of the park's final design at arcspace.com
- Pictorial Journal A neighbor's unofficial chronicle of the construction.
- Olympic Sculpture Park Flickr group.
