Seattle fulfilling bequest to erect sculpture featuring nude male

02:38 PM PDT on Wednesday, September 28, 2005

KING5.com

SEATTLE - Michelangelo’s David is in Florence. Rodin’s “Thinker” is in Paris. Now Seattle, home of “The Hammering Man,” the Fremont troll and other interesting pieces of outdoor art, is getting “Father and Son.”

The piece by acclaimed New York artist Louise Bourgeois is a 15-foot-high stainless-steel fountain that features two figures, a young son and father. It also will feature Seattle’s first classical nude male form.

When longtime Safeco executive Stu Smailes died, he left $1 million to the city of Seattle for a sculpture. In his will, Smailes stipulated that the sculpture “must include the figure of at least one life-size naked man.”

Louise Bourgeois

This sketch by artist Louise Bourgeois shows the plan for a new fountain for the Olympic Sculpture Park, called "Father and Son." It is being paid for by a bequest from Stu Smailes.

It’s a first for Seattle, which may seem odd for such a progressive city.

“Public art programs started in the 60s and there was nothing of that sort being done, particularly among contemporary artists at that time,” said Elizabeth Brown, Chief Curator at Henry Art Gallery.

In her proposal for the piece, Bourgeois said each figure in “Father and Son” will be obscured by water gushing over its surface. The volumes of water will be on a timer to mark the 24 hours of the day, accompanied by the ringing of a bell. On the hour, the water will be lowered to reveal the son. At the next hour when the bell rings, the water will rise, hiding the son, while the other mound of water will descend to reveal the father.

“Nudity in this work is a symbol of emotional nakedness; the two figures stand before each other but cannot touch; they try to see each other, but never see eye to eye; they are separated by bell jars of cascading water, which prevent any contact between them,” SAM's outgoing chief curator Lisa Corrin said in a statement.

Bourgeois, 94, also has donated six functional granite benches to the park from her surreal "Eye Benches" series of 1996-97.

The Olympic Sculpture Park is located on an 8.5-acre waterfront parcel just North of Seattle’s downtown and adjacent to Myrtle Edwards Park. It is scheduled to open in mid-2006.

The Bourgeois sculpture will join artworks currently slated for the park, which include Richard Serra’s 75-foot-long Wake (2003); a glass bridge, Seattle Cloud Cover by Teresita Fernandez; an installation, Seattle Vivarium, by Mark Dion; an installation by Roy McMakin; photography by Seattle artist Glenn Rudolph.

Pledged gifts by Virginia and Bagley Wright, including Mark Di Suvero’s first commission, Bunyonschess (1965), Tony Smith’s Wandering Rocks (1967), Ellsworth Kelly’s Untitled, 1981 (1981), Roxy Paine’s Untitled Tree (Seattle) (2003) and Anthony Caro’s Riviera (1971-1974).

In addition Alexander Calder’s 39-foot-tall Eagle (1971), purchased for the park by Jon and Mary Shirley, will move to the park from outside the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The Shirleys have also donated Beverly Pepper’s Perre’s Ventaglio III, 1967 to the park.