The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University presents the completed re-installation of the George Baker sculpture “Tilting Arc” after three years of disrepair. Considered one of the museum’s most popular and memorable outdoor sculptures, Tilting Arc greets thousands of students and patrons each week who enter the Chase Fine Arts Center on USU’s campus.

 

On Oct. 23, master fabricator Ralph Wanlass, with the help of his colleague, Drew Medvez, climbed into a lift and did the final polishing on the sculpture after four previous day’s work putting the sculpture back together. Wanlass and Medvez, of the Los Angeles-based Knack Studios, are experts in art installations and maintenance.

 

The 20-foot high, steel structure had been in multiple pieces since 2006 after suffering damage from wind and cold that caused the sculpture’s welds to deteriorate. First installed in 1996, the sculpture is by internationally renowned artist, George Baker, who taught for 30 years at Occidental College in Los Angeles before his death in 1997 at age 66.

 

Victoria Rowe Berry, director of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, is thrilled with the repairs.

 

“(The sculpture) is kind of an icon for the museum,” she said. “People were constantly saying, ‘When are you going to have that fixed?’ It’s a delight that people noticed — they actually noticed, and they complained about the sculpture’s disrepair. I think that’s great.”

 

Berry couldn’t hire any ordinary welder to repair the sculpture due to the fragility and high value of the sculpture itself.

 

“It’s a delicate piece,” she said. “If they weld in the wrong place, it could set the whole thing out of alignment.”  

 

After saving state art conservation funding and donor money for more than three years, Berry was able to hire the right firm to make the necessary repairs and resurrect the sculpture in its original form.

 

“It was worth every penny,” she said.

 

The sculpture is unique and important to the art museum’s collection, said museum curator Deb Banerjee.

 

“It takes the kinetic energy of the wind and turns it into an ever-changing composition, and it still remains interesting today because it takes equal parts engineering and aesthetic skill to create this kind of kinetic sculpture,” she said.

 

 

Writer: Casey T. Allen, Registrar/Collections Manager, (435) 797-0166, casey.allen@usu.edu