Bruce Beasley

Sixty Year Retrospective 1960–2020

Foreword by Gary

Garrido Schneider Executive Director, Grounds For Sculpture

With essays by Bruce Beasley, Tom Moran, Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue, and Lawrence Weschler

This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition

Bruce Beasley: Sixty Year Retrospective, 1960–2020

May 3, 2021–January 9, 2022

Grounds For Sculpture

80 Sculptors Way

Hamilton Township, NJ 08619 www.groundsforsculpture.org c/o CohnReznick LLP

This project is supported by lead sponsor Bank of America, the Brooke Barrie Art Fund, and the following Exhibition Supporters: the Birney Family Foundation, the Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation, Barbara Lawrence and Allen Laskin, with additional support from the Atlantic Foundation, the Johnson Art and Education Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Support for this catalogue was provided by Margaret and Herbert DuPont and Lynn Glaser.

Copyright © 2021 Grounds For Sculpture and Scala Arts Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. and Grounds for Sculpture.

Scala Arts Publishers, Inc.

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New York, NY 10019 www.scalapublishers.com

Distributed in the book trade by ACC Art Books

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All artwork copyright © Bruce Beasley from the collection of the artist unless otherwise specifically stated.

All photography copyright © Grounds For Sculpture unless otherwise specifically stated. Exhibition photography by Bruce Beasley, Bruce White, and Ken Ek.

Project Editor: Susan Higman Larsen

Design: Benjamin Shaykin

Printed and bound in China

ISBN: 978178554012

Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data.

Title. | Bruce Beasley: Sixty Year Retrospective. Grounds For Sculpture New Jersey, in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. New York. Authors. | Beasley, Bruce; DoktorczykDonohue, Marlena; Moran, Tom; and Weschler, Lawrence. Description. | Survey of Bruce Beasley’s sculpture 1960–2020, marks exhibition at Grounds for Sculpture, New Jersey, 2021–22 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers.

| LCCN 2021948297 | ISBN 9781785514012 (hbk.) | Subjects: Art, Artist, Catalogs, Sculpture, exhibition, Grounds For Sculpture, modern sculpture, multimedia, retrospective.

6Director’s Foreword

7Artist Acknowledgments

8 In Retrospect: The Artist in His Own Words

Bruce Beasley

14 Bruce Beasley: Innovation and the Primacy of Form Tom Moran

24 Bruce Beasley: In Pursuit of Form Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue

30 But For Real: A Conversation with Bruce Beasley on Art and Social Activism

Lawrence Weschler

38 Postscript: Tools, Techniques, and Media and Their Validity in Creativity

Bruce Beasley 39

142Chronology

161Selected Collections, Exhibitions, Awards and Prizes, and Public Commissions

170Selected Bibliography

174Checklist

176Index

179About the Contributors

180About GFS

This volume is published on the occasion of the exhibition Bruce Beasley: Sixty Year Retrospective, 1960–2020. The opportunity to exhibit such a large and compelling body of work from this internationally renowned and pioneering artist has been a great privilege. The exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture presents a comprehensive survey of more than 60 works spanning Beasley’s long career, including his earliest compositions in welded cast iron to his most recent work designed, in part, with virtual reality.

It is not often that museums and artists have partnerships that last for decades, but it is a tradition at Grounds For Sculpture, where support for contemporary sculpture allows for the development of long-standing relationships. In 2018 I was part of a team of GFS staff invited to visit Beasley’s Oakland studio to consider partnering with the artist on a career retrospective. The organization’s relationship with Beasley dates to 1993, when Brooke Barrie, GFS’s inaugural director and curator, began corresponding with him about a proposed exhibition. This led to a studio visit the following year, and an opportunity for the institution to exhibit Dorion as a short-term loan. Now part of the permanent collection, Dorion is a prime feature of the Sculpture Court, where thestainless-steel composition is reflected in a small pond and appears to float in the sky. Bruce has remarked that it is one of his favorite public installations of his work. I have been pleased that more recently, through the generosity of a private donor, we have been able to acquire an additional Beasley work for the collection, Horizon II.

Beyond demonstrating Beasley’s amazing skill and inventiveness, the exhibition also shares how an artist’s compelling need to create has manifested into a successful, yet never stationary, artistic career. He may not have imagined becoming an artist when he enrolled in Dartmouth College many years ago, but Beasley’s early success upon his return to California became a catalyst to a long career punctuated by continuing experimentation. His pursuit of shape led him to push in new directions, along the way demonstrating his mastery over a broad range of materials.

This has been a rewarding project for all involved. This catalogue represents the most comprehensive publication available to date on the art of Bruce Beasley. It includes insightful and scholarly essays by Tom Moran, Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue, and Lawrence Wechsler, as well as Bruce Beasley himself.

A project of this scale would not have been possible without the dedication and close collaboration of the staff at Grounds For Sculpture. My appreciation goes out to the entire team. I extend gratitude to Tom Moran, chief curator, for making this exhibition possible and guiding it into the world. I also thank Faith McClellan, director of collections and exhibitions; Tracy Lee, assistant preparator; Dani Edgar, registrar; and Lindsey Young-Lockett, manager of exhibition production, for directing this project in their typical way, which is to make difficult things look easy, and the team of riggers, shippers, and other experts who lent their technical expertise to the exhibition.

I want to thank our generous financial supporters who helped make this project possible, including lead sponsor Bank of America, the Brooke Barrie Art Fund, and the following Exhibition Supporters: the Birney Family Foundation, the Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation, and Barbara Lawrence and Allen Laskin, with additional support from the Atlantic Foundation; the Johnson Art and Education Foundation; the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. I would also like to thank Margaret and Herbert DuPont and Lynn Glaser for their support of this catalogue.

Most importantly, we owe a great deal of thanks to Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue, director of the Bruce Beasley Foundation, for the enormous gift of her time and scholarly expertise, and I would similarly like to recognize Beasley’s studio assistant, Albert Dicruttalo. Lastly, I want to thank Bruce Beasley for generously sharing this incredible body of work with GFS visitors. His enormous dedication to a lifetime pursuit of sculptural exploration has contributed immeasurably to the field of contemporary sculpture.

Gary Garrido Schneider Executive Director Grounds For Sculpture