Cadenza, Calypso, Fandango

Title: Cadenza, Calypso, Fandango
LC Subject: Sculpture Public sculpture sculpture (visual work)
Creator: Swanson, Richard
Description: Richard Swanson maintains two studios--a pottery, for making utilitarian and sculptural vessels, and a warehouse space, where he works on multi-media sculpture for museum installations, landscape installations and dance collaborations. He resides in Helena, Montana--a mountain town of much sunshine and an atmosphere of support and encouragement for the arts. His wife Penny Price Swanson, is an artist and art educator. Their son Alex is an artist for a small, innovative video game company in Eugene, Oregon. Richard’s first professional training was in psychobiology, a field dedicated to exploring the physical basis of memory. A casual pottery lesson from a friend led to an intense period of self-teaching and a career as a studio potter--later expanded to include ceramic sculpture. In 1974 he came to Helena, Montana as a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation, an internationally recognized ceramic center. An interest in working large scale with materials other than clay led him back to graduate school at the University of Montana--this time in art--where he undertook the first of several sculpture/dance collaborations with Amy Ragsdale, choreographer and art director of the Montana Transport Company. Since obtaining his MFA from the University of Montana in 1994, his work has been honored with several major grants and awards, including a Montana Art Council Individual Fellowship in Visual Art, Art Matters Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, Helena Presents Individual Artist Grant and a New Forms: Regional Initiative Grant. His large scale works have found permanent homes in many locations in Montana--including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Building at Montana State University, Rocky Mountain College, Paris Gibson Museum of Art and the Holter Museum of Art--and in other states, including the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. His figurative clay vessels have homes in such prestigious institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs in Washington, D.C. richardswanson@mt.net The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Oregon Coast Council for the Arts . You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
View: Detail, Calypso
Location: Eugene >> Lane County >> Oregon >> United States MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building >> Lane County >> Oregon >> United States Lane County >> Oregon >> United States
Award Date: 2007/2008
Identifier: percent_m000
Accession Number: Swans_Calys_02
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: Swanson, Richard
Type: Image
Format: image/jpeg
Material: 1/2 in. steel base bolted to a concrete footing Sculpture welded steel and aluminum with black-blue powder coat
Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Primary Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Relation: University of Oregon School of Music and Dance Project
Institution: Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
Note: Exterior courtyard
Color Space: RGB Color
Biographical Information: I think of these sculptures as musical phrases—no hidden meanings, just something pure, lyrical, and sometimes loopy, with the interval between notes as essential as the notes themselves.' Swanson said his goal for this commission was to set up rhythmic interactions that would engage the courtyard space with a visual expression of exuberance. From the beginning, a series of sculptures placed throughout the courtyard seemed a better choice to him than a single central sculpture. He chose a black surface to suggest musical notation, with a highlight of blue for color. 'My choice of names for these sculptures, Cadenza, Calypso and Fandango, reflects their personalities as well as their relationship to music and dance', said Swanson. Swanson encourages visitors to think of the whole installation as an evolving composition that changes as they walk around, through and under the sculptures. 'Music drifting into the courtyard from the practice rooms merges with the visual rhythms, adding flavor and complexity,' he said. 'Movement of clouds, people, leaves in the breeze—all add to the melody. Have fun!' --School of Music and Dance, Ledger Lines, February 2009, vol. XXI, no. 1.