Moses - Seattle, WA
N 47° 37.247 W 122° 20.932
10T E 548926 N 5274358
This abstract sculpture resides within the Seattle Center grounds and near the famous Seattle Space Needle.
Waymark Code: WMG8W1
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 01/30/2013
Views: 20
Moses is an abstract minimalist sculpture created by
Tony Smith in 1968 (he died of a heart attack in 1980). There is a bronze plaque flush with the lawn in front of the sculpture that reads:
Moses
Tony Smith
1968
Dedicated May 2, 1975
Mayor Wes Uhlman and Nancy Hanks
Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts
This project is supported by the National Endowment of the Arts
Seattle Sky Light % for Arts funds
The Contemporary Art Council of the Seattle Art Museum
Virginia Wright Fund
This sculpture was preserved with support from Target Stores and
the National Endowment of the Arts
Seattle.gov has a very good description of this sculpture and says the following:
Tony Smith's abstract sculpture Moses is a collection of oblique planes and geometric volumes united to create a multifaceted surface in black steel. The 5,500-pound artwork gets its name from the two diagonal projections that extend from the top of the piece and reach toward the sky in the manner of Moses parting the Red Sea.
The Seattle Art Museum's Contemporary Art Council first commissioned a plywood mock-up of Moses in 1968 for an exhibition planned for the organization's Art Museum Pavilion. This temporary model was exhibited each of the following years at Bumbershoot until 1972. At this time the Art in Public Places Committee recommended to the Seattle Arts Commission that a permanent version of Moses be created in steel. Upon its installation in 1975, the sculpture became the first major public art acquisition under Seattle's 1% for Art program.
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Wikipedia actually describes this sculpture as part of a series of three sculptures here and says:
Moses 1/3 is in the John B. Putnam, Jr. Memorial Collection of Sculpture at Princeton University, Moses 2/3 is in the collection of the Seattle Arts Commission; and Moses 3/3 at the Toledo Museum of Art as a gift of Marshall Field's, by exchange.