You are invited to celebrate the installation of The Arc, a large-scale steel sculpture by artist Alexander Liberman, at the William Benton Museum of Art.
Watch the sculpture being lifted into place by a crane and installed just outside the Museum.
9:30am: Warm up and toast the installation with President Katsouleas in The Beanery Café with a complimentary candy cane and hot chocolate.
The Arc was created by Alexander Liberman (1912-1999) in 1968 and gifted to UConn by prominent collector Robert C. Scull in 1982. An artist known for his signature red steel sculptures and geometric paintings, Liberman was also a photographer and long-time editorial director at Condé Nast. He learned to weld in the late 1940s and by the 1970s was recognized for his monumentally-scaled abstract sculptures.
In his art, Liberman aimed to elicit a profound emotional response through abstraction. Many of his sculptures have biblical and mythical references that the artist associated with the sublime. Asked about his conception of the role of sculpture in public space, Liberman replied, “I think we go back to this feeling of awe and an arresting presence that makes people stop, pause, hesitate, feel, think. That which draws them from the reality of everyday life and hopefully leads them towards the highest feelings.”
Liberman’s sculptures and paintings are included in the collections of some of the world’s most prominent art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; MoMA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Tate Gallery, London; Art Institute of Chicago; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His public sculptures can be seen in over 40 cities around the world, including On High (1979) in New Haven, CT and now on the grounds of The Benton in Storrs, CT.
For more information, contact: Benton Museum at 860-486-4520