Moving sculpture reflects Spanish ties to Meadows
In the endless quest to preserve the arts and artistic community throughout SMU’s campus, a highly anticipated sculpture from world-famous architect Santiago Calatrava was unveiled Tuesday morning in front of the Meadows Museum.
Appropriately titled “Wave,” the 40-by-80-foot art work is located at the entrance to campus on the right hand side.
“It sits as a welcome to everyone in the SMU community,” said SMU President Gerald Turner.
“Wave” is one of the first large-scale works by Santiago Calatrava to be completed in the United States.
“What makes Santiago Calatrava such an outstanding artist is his ability to merge the boundaries between engineering and architecture, art and function,” said Dean Carole Brandt of Meadows School of the Arts.
The sculpture incorporates a shallow, rectangular pool, similar to a miniature version of the reflecting pool in Washington D.C., with 129 bronze bars running its length, each weighing 400 pounds. The bars move in sequence, creating a cycling wave motion in the air directly above the water. Surrounding the water and outer area is black granite which descends four inches into the ground.
“[Wave] is reflective of nature, with water below and sky above,” said Brandt, who called the sculpture a signature piece for SMU, Dallas and Texas.
Calatrava was specially commissioned to create the statue by the museum in the spring of last year. Funds for the work came from the Communities Foundation of Texas which gave a $1.5 million gift at the request of donors Mary Anne and Richard Cree of Dallas.
The architect has a notable history with the SMU arts community. In November of 2000 he received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts.
The following spring, when the new Meadows Museum opened on campus, the inaugural exhibition, “Poetics of Movement: The Architecture of Santiago Calatrava,” featured the work of Spain’s greatest architect, engineer, and sculptor.
Born in Spain in 1951, Calatrava studied architecture and urban studies at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura de Valencia and civil engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich.
He founded an architectural and civil engineering practice in Zurich in 1981 — the same year he received his doctorate in technical science from the school’s department of architecture. After graduation, he founded another architectural practice in Paris in 1989.
Since then, Calatrava has received 11 doctoral honors throughout his career. Today, Calatrava is the leading architect in Spain, and his art and architecture has been exhibited in Barcelona, Chicago, Copenhagen, Helsinki, New York, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, Stockholm, Tokyo, Toronto, Venice, and Zurich.
“‘Wave’ is a major acquisition to the SMU community. It is such a creative interplay of arts, architecture and engineering; ‘Wave’ is a very highly anticipated addition to campus,” Turner said.
His Excellency Javier Rupéz, Ambassador of Spain, was also in attendance at the event. He congratulated SMU on its work in supporting the strengthening of the relationship between Spain and the United States – especially in Dallas.
