After a seven-year journey, David Smith’s “Superstructure on 4” is back where it belongs – outside the Sheldon Museum of Art.
The 11.5-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture, arguably the enduring masterpiece of Sheldon’s acclaimed outdoor sculpture collection, stood on the southwest side of the museum for five decades, towering above the sunken sculpture garden with the sun reflecting off the burnished silver “box” that tops its four stick-like legs.
In 2013, however, “Superstructure on 4” was moved from that perfect site, ostensibly to serve as the introductory piece for a sculpture corridor on the east side of the building. It was replaced by a “head” from Jun Kaneko, the Omaha-based Japanese-American sculptor who, at the time, was the flavor of the sculpture moment in Lincoln.
“Superstructure on 4” was, shortsightedly, placed under a stand of trees, which within months led to the sculpture being damaged.
“The welds became corroded because of bird excrement,” said Sheldon director and chief curator Wally Mason. “It had to be removed for conservation. The fact is they (outdoor sculptures) are not bulletproof. You have to respect the object and look very closely at it, identify any damage and take care of it.”
The sculpture had to be sent to Omaha for conservation, its welds carefully restored without altering the piece.
“Once we did that, it didn’t seem appropriate to put it right back where it received damage,” Mason said.
So “Superstructure on 4” was installed inside, in the Great Hall of the Philip Johnson-designed building.
Smith, who died in a car crash in 1965, would have hated it, because he designed the sculpture to be outdoors in an open space.
That’s evident from an early ‘60s photograph of sculptures in a field at Bolton Landing, Smith’s New York studio property, that’s in the just-published biography “David Smith: The Art and Life of a Transformational Sculptor.”
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“You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to see ours prominently deployed in that field,” Mason said.
In “Superstructure on 4,” Smith, the leading sculptor of mid-century abstract expressionism, translated the movement and linear dynamism of the paintings of the likes of Willem deKooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline into steel.
“It’s funny, he was able to take a material that is so rigid and make it look so lyrical,” Mason said. “There are few sculptors you can say that about. There aren’t many sculptors who could take welded steel and make it expressionist.”
“Superstructure on 4,” which has a figurative appearance, is a mid-career piece from Smith.
“It’s a transitional piece,” Mason said. “It’s one of his sentinel works. It’s sort of in between things that are larger and more dense, the Cubis, and the work that came before that was more lyrical. That’s why I like ours. It’s sort of the best of both worlds.”
While “Superstructure on 4” stood inside Sheldon, efforts were underway to find a new outdoor placement for the sculpture in an appropriately open space, far away from trees and birds.
“Grass wasn’t an option,” Mason said. "The sprinkler system water would damage the patina.”
The site on the plaza west of Sheldon became the best option. But placing the sculpture there required constructing a small concrete pad into which the legs of the sculpture were placed – not because of potential instability.
“It was designed with the idea that it’s skateboard retardant," Mason said. “It was designed to prevent skateboarders from using it as a pivot point. If it was at ground level, there would have been abuse from skateboarders. We have to protect the building and sculptures from that. That’s why we have the planters on the entrances, to keep them from using them as ramps. And it’s why we have to heavily protect the sculptures.”
The new location, 10 to 15 yards from the Sheldon building, isn’t ideal. But it’s outside where “Superstructure on 4” belongs.
“Is it the best place? No, but it’s better,” Mason said. "People see it every day. It has a nice relationship with the building. But I wish it was in a field somewhere.”
60+ pieces of public art in Lincoln
Torn Notebook
Reflection
Old Glory
Pitch, Roll & Yaw
Watchful Citizen
Mbera
Gettysburg Lincoln
Clocktower
Rebekah at the Well
Sculpture of child
Groundwater Colossus
Ascent Tower
Tem and Ptah
Acklie Fountain
Iron Horse Legacy
Floating Figure
Vase with Five Flowers
Bench
Doorways to Hope, Garden of Faith, Hope and Love
Illuminating Lincoln
Bicycle
Star Art
Snowplow art
Look Ma, No Hands
Noos
Jay Tschetter mural
Mural on Kiechel building
Solar Semaphore
Double Spinner
War and Victory sculpture
Candy Box
Mountain Monarch
27th Street Hearth
If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again sculpture
Rarin' to Ride
Frog Baby
Daydreams
Standing Bear Sculpture
Harvest sculpture
Four Seasons Terminals
Kneeling figure
Ako's Enso II
Baroque Cherub
"Nautilus" sculpture installation
Arietta II
Tilted Donut #7
Ascot
Archie
Balanced / Unbalanced Wheels #2
Palo Alto I
Dementia
Bop and Crazed
Sluice Scythe & Wedgie
Our Community / Larger than Life
Breach
Bather
Liberty bell
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Bicentennial Cascade Fountain
Rotary Pavilion
Greenpoint
Kaneko head sculptures
Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com. On Twitter @KentWolgamott