Sculpture History In California
APOLYMON, a 13,000-pound sculpture of brilliant Lucite, commissioned by the State of California and displayed in the plaza of the Capitol in Sacramento, is the largest transparent object ever cast and an artistic and technological achievement of interna- tional significance. The artist, Bruce Beasley'61, won the $50,000 commission after submitting a two-foot model cast with a chemical process he invented. The model astounded DuPont scientists because casting acrylic resin in larger mass than sheet thickness had been considered impossible. APOLYMON is 8 feet high and 15 feet wide, and at points achieves a thickness of 4 feet.
The time involved and cost of materials made trial runs prohibitive, so Beasley's 2½ years of work was a suspense-filled gamble which depended primarily on successful modification of his chemical formula. When the massive abstraction emerged from its pressure cooker, a 30,000- pound autoclave, it was in perfect shape, a water-clear work of art.
Because of Lucite's reflective characteristics, any light entering the material tends to
diffuse throughout the piece. APOLYMON has been placed in an east-west posture on the plaza where it provides awesome "light shows" at sunrise and sunset, and reflects the more subtle permutations in between. The artist's goal, he said, was "to capture and encompass the spirit of space and light in a free-flowing form."
Beasley, who left Dartmouth in 1959 to study art at the University of California in Berkeley, has been internationally recognized for nearly ten years. His earlier sculptures in bronze and aluminum, as well as smaller Lucite castings, are in the permanent collections of major museums in this country and abroad, and have received several prizes including the Andre Malraux. Purchase Award at the 1963 Biennale de Paris.
Commissioned by the state of California, APOLYMON, 6½-ton Lucite sculpture byBruce Beasley '61, stands in the plaza of the state capitol in Sacramento.
Bruce Beasley '61 pouring the mold forAPOLYMON in his Oakland studio.
