加州奥克兰博物馆宣布对国际知名的雕塑家、创新者和社区领袖布鲁斯-比斯利的西奥克兰工作室综合体和艺术作品的重大遗赠。
(加州奥克兰博物馆（OMCA）宣布，博物馆和国际知名的雕塑家、西奥克兰的长期居民和社区活动家布鲁斯-比斯利（Bruce Beasley）已经达成协议，他在西奥克兰的大量工作室将被遗赠给OMCA，作为未来的布鲁斯-比斯利雕塑中心，同时还有比斯利自己的作品收藏和相关档案资料。
未来的雕塑中心是一位在世的艺术家留给博物馆的极其不寻常的遗赠，它将关注雕塑作为一种艺术形式的重要性，并将代表比斯利的遗产，激励其他艺术家和吸引公众。未来的雕塑中心将为了解一位重要的美国雕塑家的生活和工作过程提供一个难得的窗口，它是比斯利对精致的形式、创新和公民参与的终身兴趣的证明。比斯利在50年的时间里开发了这个场地，它有多个工作的工作室空间，以及比斯利作品的室内画廊和室外花园。该建筑群在其西奥克兰社区的街道两边延伸，在那里已经发展了半个世纪。
该工作室综合体将被赠予加州奥克兰博物馆，以支持未来雕塑中心的运营和规划。总的来说，这份礼物的价值约为2000万美元，使其成为这个有45年历史的博物馆中最大的一份私人礼物。在未来几年里，博物馆和比斯利计划从2015年开始，每年至少向公众开放一次未来的雕塑中心，供公众参观。随着艺术家去世后遗赠的生效，更广泛的计划细节将在未来公布。欲了解更多关于OMCA和未来布鲁斯-比斯利雕塑中心的信息，请访问museumca.org。
"我们非常感谢布鲁斯的这份礼物，它将使整个社区世代受益，"加州奥克兰博物馆馆长兼首席执行官Lori Fogarty说。"布鲁斯的愿景是创建一个世界上独一无二的雕塑中心，将雕塑作为一种艺术形式来培养，并为雕塑家提供机会来提高他们的技艺。
雕塑在本质上是一种挑战，因为与绘画、摄影、纸上作品或工艺品相比，大型三维作品的工作和展览空间都更加有限。因此，博物馆将为未来的雕塑中心规划一个多样化的项目，包括布鲁斯的作品和其他艺术家的作品的展览、艺术家驻场、公共项目，以及学术、写作和研究的机会。计划将广泛关注雕塑领域，并强调比斯利具有独特影响的一些领域，如艺术与技术、艺术与工程、艺术、社区和行动主义之间的联系。
Beasley, his legacy, and the Oakland Museum of California are a perfect fit for the future Sculpture Center project. Beasley’s half century of dedication to art, the history and development of the community and to science and technology are ideal complements to OMCA’s focus on the stories of California as told through its collections in California art, history and natural sciences and its role as a catalyst in community development and growth for 45 years. Bruce Beasley has been a resident and active community member in West Oakland for 50 years. He was a true trailblazer in community activism, particularly working to bring services to West Oakland such as sidewalks, streetlights and a public park. He remains active in local causes and community involvement today.
The Oakland Museum of California envisions the future Bruce Beasley Sculpture Center as an active community hub in West Oakland as well as a regional, national, and even international resource in sculpture that honors and continues Beasley’s vision for and commitment to the local area. With West Oakland’s very rich creative community—particularly in forms aligned with Bruce’s sculpture in industrial arts and fabrication with organizations such as The Crucible and American Steel Studios— the future Sculpture Center will continue to be a key part of this community as well as a resource for the neighborhood as a whole.
About the gift and future center, Beasley says, “Part of the magic of sculpture is that it is physical; it is real and occupies the same environment that we do. But the facts of that reality also mean that it is the most difficult and demanding of all the visual arts to both create and exhibit. It needs the most studio space, uses the most expensive tools and techniques. It is the hardest on the bodies of its practitioners and is the most difficult and therefore the least likely to be exhibited. As I contemplated how fortunate I was to be able to spend my life making sculpture, I realized that the real heroes of the sculpture world were those who continue working without financial and critical success. I wanted to do something that would contribute to the expression of other sculptors, and that is what led to the idea of turning my studios and gardens into a center for sculpture when my career is over. A place to give a voice to work that might not otherwise be seen. But, over all, a place that stood for the fundamental value of sculpture itself.”
Johanna Hutchinson, Director of the International Sculpture Center in Hamilton, NJ, said, “From the very first moment I met Bruce many years ago, I felt the strength of his passion, vision, generosity, and commitment to his belief in sculpture and the important role it plays in society: Bruce is an example of an artist that has dedicated his life to sculpture. The formation of the future Bruce Beasley Sculpture Center is the ultimate philanthropic gift to the sculpture community and to the artists of the future. It represents more than just a gift to the Oakland Museum of California and the Bay Area, it is a legacy to the future of the field, something that has always been at forefront of Bruce’s life and work. The future Sculpture Center will be an asset that will attract artists on an international level bringing new ideas and collaborations from around the world and giving sculptors and those interested in sculpture a place to share, work, grow, and study.”
About Beasley and the future Sculpture Center, Lawrence R. Rinder, Director of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, commented, “Bruce Beasley is that rare type of person, an artist-citizen. Not content to create innovative and beautiful works of art, Bruce’s practice is inextricable from his vision for a healthier, happier society. In a sense, his sculptures are abstract representations of this ideal. His extraordinarily generous donation to the Oakland Museum of California and to the people of the Bay Area is a natural extension of his proclivity to envision new possibilities and to undertake dramatic, awe-inspiring transformations. With this gift, he may well transform the arts community of the Bay Area.”
“The creation of the future Bruce Beasley Sculpture Center is representative of the scale of Beasley’s commitment to sculpt and shape the West Oakland community into a more relevant and livable space,” said civil rights leader and publisher of the Post News Group Paul Cobb. “When he joined our community his artwork, also became the fight to transform West Oakland. Beasley was instrumental in making West Oakland no longer neglected, abandoned and in the dark. He reshaped our place with his community involvement and, with us, fought the powers at be to make sure that our community became a better place to live. The Bruce Beasley Sculpture Center will honor and encourage others to be change makers as well and will inspire others to utilize his pattern of courage for the art of living.”
“Bruce is a West Oakland resident whose sculptural works embody the creative spirit of Oakland,” said Lynette Gibson McElhaney, City Councilmember for District Three. “Bruce’s contribution of his West Oakland studio and gardens to be a future outpost of the Oakland Museum of California is a generous and forward-looking gift to the City of Oakland.”
ABOUT BRUCE BEASLEY
For more than 50 years Bruce Beasley has maintained a singular focus on the pursuit of pure, essential form. He burst into the art world at the height of the Abstract Sculpture movement in 1962 with the sale of his first sculpture to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. 1963 was also a banner year during which the Guggenheim acquired Prometheus II, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art added Daedalus to its permanent collection and Beasley won the Paris Biennale Purchase Prize for his sculpture Icarus.
在他最初的成功之后，比斯利在西奥克兰建造了他的工作室。随着时间的推移，这个院落逐渐扩大，包括几英亩的土地、多个制造工作室、他的家人的家，并且是未来加州奥克兰博物馆布鲁斯-比斯利雕塑中心的所在地。随着他事业的发展，他的设施的范围也在扩大，他在艺术和技术上的创新欲望也在增强。比斯利以科学的精确度分析形式，但他的雕塑方法充满了他对其工艺的热情。尽管存在数以千计的比斯利研究报告，但其中只有一小部分被实现为雕塑。这些作品超越了文化、语言和空间的界限，毫不妥协地坚持比斯利倡导的美学原则。
1968年，布鲁斯被授予加利福尼亚州第一个公共场所艺术委员会。创作的开创性作品是Apolymon；一个不朽的铸造丙烯酸雕塑，展示了形式、材料和技术的融合。比斯利为制作Apolymon和其他重要的雕塑而发明的开创性的制造工艺也为其提供了重要的科学突破。比斯利能够铸造不朽的水球，这些水球被无数的科学家用于深海探索。迄今为止，科学家们仍在继续使用深海球来收集重要的深海数据。
在1977年至1994年期间，比斯利将他的重点转向越来越多的铝、不锈钢和青铜的纪念性作品。在此期间，比斯利参加了17次个展和56次联展，并为美国和国外的机构提供了重要的委托作品。一些亮点包括加州雕塑展、第19届Monumenta雕塑双年展，以及为旧金山国际机场、迈阿密国际机场、斯坦福大学、阿拉斯加州和新泽西州汉密尔顿的Grounds for Sculpture的委托作品。这段重要的艺术探索时期，比斯利对数字技术的兴趣使他能够设计出越来越复杂的雕塑。视觉和技术的同步性助长了比斯利作品的想象力和可能性，伸展了他的美学词汇的手臂，同时仍然向他们的现代根基表示敬意。
在最近的二十年里，比斯利参加了29次个展和39次联展，并为2008年北京奥运会、上海世博会、萨克拉门托的克罗克博物馆、奥克兰市、墨西哥蒙特雷市、以及迈阿密大学和俄勒冈大学实现了委托创作。他目前正在为弗里蒙特市和圣何塞的圣克拉拉谷地医疗中心进行纪念性的委托创作。
通过坚定不移的、有纪律的考虑，比斯利开发了一套作品，推动了人类头脑所能想象的极限，在他的雕塑探索中从不接受限制；在比斯利的艺术、技术和科学努力的范围内，"不 "根本不存在。他毕生追求雕塑的弧线产生了对形式的丰富探索。虽然被定义为 "现代"，比斯利的雕塑跨越了时间/空间/审美的连续体，体现了古典、创新和永恒的重要性。雕塑是比斯利的工作；他纯粹而热情地从各个角度探索了他的内部视野的线索。以一种务实的、线性的方法，他从未动摇或减缓过激励他的艺术形式。 这是他存在的本质，是他的快乐，是他对生活和周围世界的参与。
关于加州奥克兰博物馆
加州奥克兰博物馆（OMCA）将艺术、历史和自然科学的藏品汇集在一个屋檐下，讲述加州及其人民的非凡故事。OMCA的突破性展览以多种声音讲述了构成加州的许多故事，通常是由塑造加州文化遗产的人以第一人称叙述。参观者被邀请积极参与博物馆的活动，了解影响该州的自然、艺术和社会力量，并调查他们自己在其历史和未来中的作用。OMCA拥有超过190万件物品，是湾区领先的文化机构，也是研究和了解加州动态文化和环境遗产的资源。museumca.org。
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