PULLMAN, Wash. – The installation of 12 bronze sculptures – some as tall as 14 feet and weighing as much as two tons – will get underway this week at Washington State University as part of the most ambition fine arts exhibition ever staged here.
All forged at the Walla Walla Foundry, the large-scale bronzes feature 19 individual objects and are the work of nine different internationally recognized artists, including Jim Dine, a major figure in American art since the early 1960s. Dine’s work recently was highlighted with a retrospective of his drawings at the National Gallery of Art in
Included as part of an exhibition entitled “Jim Dine & Sculpture from the Walla Walla Foundry,” the large-scale outdoor bronzes will be displayed in conjunction with a companion exhibit featuring a broad selection of Dine’s sculpture in the gallery of the WSU Museum of Art. The exhibition, which coincides with the 30-year anniversary of the WSU Museum of Art, is slated to begin Aug. 20. Dine’s gallery exhibit will run through Oct. 17, while the out bronzes will be displayed through Oct. 31.
While the bronzes are now on temporary loan to the university, Bruce said WSU hopes to acquire several of the sculptures in an effort to permanently enhance the
Keith Wells, art museum curator, said the ongoing outdoor sculpture installations on the
“We don’t yet have a complete schedule of when each of the pieces will be delivered from the foundry,” Wells said. “I expect some of the smaller pieces that require the most assembly will be installed this week. The larger pieces are more likely to be installed beginning the week of Aug. 20.”
Wells said wooden and concrete foundations have been created for some of the larger sculptures, many of which will have to be lifted into place using small cranes or forklifts.
Four of the planned larger outdoor sculptures are the work of Dine. They are “Five Large Heads in
The other planned outdoor bronzes, all of which were cast at the Walla Walla Foundry, are the work of artists Marilyn Lysohir, Terry Allen, Robert Arneson, John Buck, Frank Boyden, Brad Rude, Deborah Butterfield and Tom Otterness.
The Walla Walla Foundry was established in 1980 by Mark Anderson in a small garage and was a nominal two-person facility. Now boasting a much larger state-of-the-art facility, it is one of the most distinguished and productive art foundries in the country. The foundry’s achievements were recognized in 1996, when it became a recipient of the Washington State Governor’s Arts Award.
Dine began casting his sculptures at the Walla Walla Foundry exclusively in 1983, in what now amounts to a two-decade collaboration with Anderson, a graduate of WSU.
In conjunction with the exhibition,
The
The exhibit is made possible, in part, by a $50,000 grant from the Allen Foundation for the Arts. Founded in
This free-standing bronze sculpture “Carnival (Venus),” created by internationally recognized artist Jim Dine, will be one of 12 separate bronze castings that will be displayed across the Pullman campus of Washington State University through the end of October. The sculptures, some of which weigh as much as two tons and stand over 14 feet tall, are part of an exhibit featuring works produced at the Walla Walla Foundry.
