Clock Knot, a sculpture by Mark di Suvero, is located outside the Mechanical Engineering (ETC) and the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Building (CPE).
Di Suvero sculpture Clock Knot installed in front of ME Building
Andrée Bober, director of Landmarks, opens the dedication ceremony of
Clock Knot by Mark di Suvero outside
the engineering buildings on September 26, 2008.
Mark di Suvero is an American,
born in China in 1933. Clock Knot was built in 2007 out of painted steel and is
498 x 260 x 420 inches. It was lent by the artist and Spacetime C.C.,
courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery.
By Daniel Vargas, Cockrell School of Engineering
AUSTIN, TEXAS—September 29, 2008
The following story was written before installation. The photos were taken during the installation ceremony on Friday, September 26, 2008 with the artist in attendance.
AUSTIN, Texas— A four-story tall sculpture by internationally renowned artist Mark di Suvero was dedicated Friday, Sept. 26, in front of the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Building.
"Clock Knot," a monumentally scaled sculpture, is part of Landmarks, a new public art program in the College of Fine Arts. Constructed primarily of steel pieces bolted and welded together, it will stand approximately 41 feet tall and certainly turn some heads with its red-orange exterior.
"The piece is a superb example of di Suvero's work," says Andrée Bober, founding director of Landmarks. "It will transform the landscape and become an icon for the university and for Austin."
Dean Gregory Fenves spoke at the
dedication ceremony, and described the
College's interest in the sculpture.
The sculpture is on long-term loan from the artist. The university intends to purchase the piece for its public art collection.
One of the most important American sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries, di Suvero emerged in the context of abstract expressionism in the 1950s. "Clock Knot" exemplifies the iconic form of di Suvero's sculptures. Combined with recently installed works on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Clock Knot" will significantly expand important representations of modern and contemporary sculpture on the campus.
"We are extremely fortunate to have this remarkable collaboration between the Landmarks program and the Blanton Museum," says Linda Henderson, art and art history professor. "The di Suvero sculpture's placement adjacent to the Cockrell School of Engineering is highly appropriate. Di Suvero is deeply engaged with science and technology and he conceives of his works as fields of physical forces as he constructs his sculptures using a crane."
Di Suvero is scheduled to attend a public dedication of "Clock Knot" 1:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at the installation site, the northeast corner of Dean Keeton Street and Speedway.
Top: Mark di Suvero greets a well-wisher.
Bottom: Crowd studies sculpture's base.
The di Suvero installation corresponds to the opening of the exhibition "Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York" at the Blanton Museum of Art. Park Place was a cooperative gallery founded by 10 artists, including di Suvero. It was the first downtown gallery with a large ground-floor space and became the prototype for subsequent galleries in SoHo and Chelsea. Di Suvero will participate in a 3:30 p.m. Sept. 26 roundtable discussion with other Park Place artists in the Ayala Auditorium of the ACES Building.
Landmarks brings the finest works of public art to the university's main campus to support the university as a leading research institution, to enhance its aesthetic character and to provide a source of civic pride and welfare.
For more information about the Landmarks public art program, visit: www.landmarks.utexas.edu.
For more information, contact: Daniel J. Vargas, Cockrell School of Engineering, 512-471-7541, Daniel.vargas2@engr.utexas.edu Cockrell School of Engineering, 512-471-4691.