Bruce Beasley Sculpture

16 ft. Outdoor Sculpture Installed at Crocker

A bronze sculpture by Bruce Beasley was recently placed in front of the new wing of the Crocker. Arpeggio IV stands 16 ft tall, weighs 4,620 pounds and now resides at the corner of N and 2nd St.

The artist donated his artpiece in honor of the opening of the Teel Family Pavilion on October 10.

"It is protected with a special patina to keep it from weathering," said Lawrence Beasley, the artist's wife. "This is the second largest piece he's done for Sacramento."

Sculptor Bruce Beasley, a world renown artist, was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California in 2005. Beasley was one of 10 sculptors worldwide selected to do a piece for the Beijing Olympics.

Crocker curator Scott Shields says it is thrilling to have Beasley represented at the museum.

Arpeggio is a Latin musical term meaning "the notes of a chord played in succession, either ascending or descending."

Beasley says this work is a "certain movement of shapes. The cubes (on the top) are like individual notes of music making it an arpeggio of shapes."

He is based in Oakland, his artistic career spans 45 years. In 1965 he installed his first San Franciso solo exhibition, Hansen Gallery.

In 1969, through exhaustive research, he made a major breakthrough in casting technology. He developed a process that casts acrylic sculpture in monumental scale.

Around 1977 Beasley was approached by leading oceanographers to cast an all-transparent bathysphere. He built two submersibles with all-transparent crew compartments.