Untitled

Frederick Eversley, Untitled, 1974, plastic, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1983.82

Exhibition Label

Eversley speaks of energy, space, time, and matter – concepts familiar to physicists and mathematicians and to an electrical engineer who gave up a career in the space program to make sculpture. The disc form of this untitled work is the result of the centrifugal process. Its highly polished surface concentrates ambient light in a bright central orb that shines like a distant star in the emptiness of space and draws the viewer into a cosmic place. But the parabolic shape also acts like a lens that captures light and the reflections of objects around it into a miniature black universe that dramatically alters relationships in the surrounding space.

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012

Luce Center Label

Frederick Eversley's pieces evoke mirrors or large optical lenses. He uses a process that involves spinning liquid plastic around a vertical axis until the centrifugal forces create a concave surface. Many of Eversley's sculptures incorporate parabolic curves. These curves are found in a range of natural and man-made forms including suspension bridges, wind-blown sand dunes, and microwave reflectors, and Eversley is fascinated by their ability to concentrate and reflect energy into a single point.

Luce Object Quote

"[The sculptures] act as . . . parabolic mirrors or reflectors which capture and focus . . . light energy onto an imaginary plane or point which appears to be suspended in space." Artist's statement, 1978

Title

Untitled

Artists

Frederick Eversley

Date

1974

On View

Not on view.

Dimensions