PRESS RELEASE

February 23, 2004

Contact:
Katie Sproles, (541) 346-0942, ksproles@darkwing.uoregon.edu

BEASLEY SCULPTURE INSTALLED AT UO MUSEUM OF ART

EUGENE-The University of Oregon Museum of Art installed a new bronze sculpture by California artist Bruce Beasley on Monday, Feb. 23. The bronze-plated sculpture, standing nearly 7 feet tall and 15 feet wide, is prominently displayed outside the art museum's newly expanded building at 1430 Johnson Lane on the UO campus.

Beasley was inspired to create the sculpture, titled "Encounter," by the essence of universities and art museums.

"The base blocks are a metaphor for the very foundation of the university itself-the faculty, the library, the research facilities," explains Beasley. "The upper composition of blocks that actively engage and play off the base blocks is a metaphor for the activities that the university engenders-learning, questioning, exposure to ideas and to art-and are the vital and dynamic purposes of the university."

The selection committee chose Beasley to receive the Percent for Art commission from a competitive field of 37 applicants. State law requires that up to one percent of a building's cost be dedicated to public art.

"The newly expanded Museum of Art demands an outdoor sculpture that will immediately identify the museum as an arts space," explains David Turner, UO Museum of Art director. "Beasley's hard edge steel mass offers an artful transition between the campus arboretum and the towering, skillfully crafted brick walls."

Beasley's career as an artist spans more than 40 years and includes a previous visit to Eugene. The Oakland, Calif., artist once served as one of the master sculptors at the International Sculpture Symposium in 1974. His "Big Red" sculpture, which stands on West Seventh between Washington and Jefferson in Eugene, was a product of that event.

In addition to being featured in exhibitions throughout the world, Beasley's sculptures are part of civic, corporate and museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Encounter" is Beasley's seventh sculpture to be sited on a university campus.

The UO Museum of Art is scheduled to reopen in October 2004 after completion of a major renovation and expansion project that will nearly double the size of the historic building.


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