Dale Eldred - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dale Eldred was an internationally acclaimed sculptor renowned for large-scale sculptures that emphasized both natural and generated light.

Biography

The grandson of Finnish immigrant builders, Eldred was raised in Minnesota. Eldred moved to Kansas City in 1959, fresh out of the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

. Within a year, he was named chairman of the sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

department of Kansas City Art Institute

Kansas City Art Institute

The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....

.

Eldred possessed an imposing physical presence and was a college football fullback

Fullback (American football)

A fullback is a position in the offensive backfield in American and Canadian football, and is one of the two running back positions along with the halfback...

. He was known to be resilient in the face of challenge, such as the fire in 1991 that destroyed a studio that contained his library and many valuable artworks.

Eldred chaired the sculpture department at KCAI for 33 years, exerting a powerful influence on thousands of students, including: Shawn Brixey

Shawn Brixey

Shawn Alan Brixey is Associate Professor of Digital Arts and Experimental Media, and the Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Chair for Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle...

, Ming Fay

Ming Fay

Ming Fay is a Shanghai-born and New York-based sculptor and professor. His work focuses on the concept of the garden as a symbol of utopia and the relationship between man and nature...

, Michael Rees

Michael Rees

Michael Rees is an American artist doing sculpture, installation, animation, and interactive computing. He has exhibited his works widely, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY ; The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT , The MARTa...

, John E. Buck

John E. Buck

John Buck is an American sculptor and printmaker who was born in Ames, Iowa. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kansas City Art Institute in 1968, and in 1971, he studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine...

, and the collaborative couple, (the late) Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler who met at KCAI. He also was the artistic director of Biosphere II, and was a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

Center for Advanced Visual Studies.

Dale Eldred was a victim of the "500-year" flood in the summer of 1993, when the Missouri River inundated parts of Kansas City. He was killed in a fall trying to rescue equipment in his West Bottoms

West Bottoms

The West Bottoms is an industrial area immediately to the west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri at the confluence of the Missouri River and the Kansas River. The area is one of the oldest areas of the city....

-neighborhood studio.

Sculpture

Eldred's early sculptures were large works in clay. Influenced by the monumental steel sculptures of David Smith

David Smith (sculptor)

David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...

and Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...

, he began to work in steel, wood and other materials, creating large sculptures and environments. Examples of these include a sculpture composed of a pair of large cantilevered slabs of wood and steel, placed near the entrance of the Kansas City Art Institute; and a park in northern Kansas City, Missouri housing a large stone and lumber environment. His work of this time was reviewed favorably by critic and artist Donald Judd

Donald Judd

Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...

.

Eldred was commissioned to redesign downtown Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City is the third-largest city in the state of Kansas and is the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the third largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The city is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the "Unified...

. His challenging modernist design included futuristic fountains, irregular streets, and steel curbs. Received poorly, its unpopularity led the city to modify much of his work, but aspects still exist today.

Eldred expressed his desire to reveal natural phenomena. He created a towering sculpture in a Kansas City park that sprayed water in order to create prismatic light refractions. His emphasis increasingly focused on light; he used mirrors, pure pigments, gas flames, fluorescent paint, refraction tape, glass, neon tubes and other materials to create light effects. "I want the sculptures to remind us all," he said, "that our lives are inextricably linked to light, and that our universe is in constant motion."http://users.rcn.com/jdeubel/plaza/timelig.html

In collaboration with choreographer Todd Bolender

Todd Bolender

Todd Bolender was a renowned ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director. He was an instrumental figure in the creation and dissemination of classical dance and ballet as an American art form...

, he created the set and costumes for "Voyager," a ballet performed by the State Ballet of Missouri.

He collaborated with other highly regarded artists and musicians, including composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

Phillip Glass.

United States

Arizona

Time/Light Fusion, 1990, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale
Time Garden, 1990, Arizona State University, Tempe
Vision Lens: Light and Future, 1990, Arizona State University, Tempe

Florida

Solar Time Plane, 1984, Broward County Main Library, Fort Lauderdale
Light Abacus I, 1990, Criser Hall, Gainesville
Sun Stations, 1983, Coconut Grove Station, Miami
Earth and Sky Garden, 1984, University of South Florida, College of Public Health courtyard, Tampa

Illinois

Urban Time and Light Field, 1985, Cermak Plaza Shopping Center, Berwyn

Iowa

Landscape Piece #1, 1965, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines
Model for Landscape, 1967, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines

Kansas

Salina Piece, 1969, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Untitled, 1968, litho, Spencer Gallery of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Untitled, 1968, litho, Spencer Gallery of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Galileo's Garden, 1984, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park

Michigan

Untitled, 1973, Grand Valley State University, Allendale

Minnesota

Mankota Piece, 1968, Riverfront Park, Mankota
Minneapolis Project, 1983, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a fine art museum located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a campus that covers nearly 8 acres , formerly Morrison Park...

and other sites, Minneapolis

Missouri

Heritage Fountain, 1977, Blue Valley Park, Kansas City
Steeple of Light, 1990 - 94, Community Christian Church, Kansas City
Signage, Harry J. Epstein Hardware, Kansas City
East Gate Piece, 1966, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City
Homage to the Ancients, 1975, print, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City
Seven Views of the Grand Canyon, 1985, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City
Sculpture II, 1963, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Standing Iron, 1962, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Untitled, 1962, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City
Sun Field, 1991, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis

North Carolina

Time + Light Tower, 1991, Capital Blvd & Fairview Dr, Raleigh

Ohio

Light Path Crossing, 1987, Case Western University, Cleveland
Sun Obelisk, 1974, Promenade Park, Toledo

Oklahoma

Tulsa Time and Light Continuum, 1983, Convention Center, Tulsa
Radiant Range, 1993, Convention Center, Tulsa
Kansas Landmark (Drum Piece), 1965, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa

Oregon

Levitated Light, 1987, Portland State University, School of Business Administration, Portland

Tennessee

Airport Sun Project, 1989, Nashville International Airport, Nashville

Utah

Light and Time Incident, 1995, Utah State University, Science / Technology Library, Logan

Virginia

Light Garden, 1988, Virginia Beach

Wisconsin

Appleton Aurora, 1989, Appleton Center, Appleton

International

City Art Museum, Helsinki (Finland)
Cankaya Cultural and Arts Foundation, Ankara, Turkey

Awards and honors

He received numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

and grants from the Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

, the American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Publications

Ralph Coe. Dale Eldred: Sculpture Into Environment, ISBN 0700601597, Regents Press Kansas, 1978.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.