Sculpture Source

A unique destination for sculpture enthusiasts is the outdoor Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, Washington. Opened to the public in January 2007, the free-admission park features contemporary sculptures made of steel, aluminum, wood, bronze, glass, concrete, black granite and more by artists like Tony Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Mark di Suvero and Beverly Pepper. One piece, the Neukom Vivarium, is actually an 80-foot-long Western Hemlock tree that features living plants and is on display in a climate-controlled incubator room. Since 2003, the park has received several awards honoring its design, engineering and environmental restoration.

The park includes Father and Son, a stunning fountain of steel, aluminum and bronze by Bourgeois. It features sculptures of a nude father and son reaching for each other, each alternately obscured by volumes of the fountain’s water. The water is on a timer to mark the 24 hours in each day. At the top of one hour, the fountain’s water lowers to reveal the son and rises to obscure the father. On the next hour, the water alternates to obscure the son and reveal the father. Bourgeois explained that the obscurity marks the way that male familial relationships deteriorate over time. The piece is the result of a sculpture commission following the death of a Safeco insurance executive; his estate gifted $1 million to the city of Seattle to purchase public art that included realistic, life-size, nude male figures.