On View
On viewObject number1999.16
Torre Pieno nel Vuoto II
Artist
Beverly Pepper
(American, 1924 - 2020)
Date1969
Mediumstainless steel and baked enamel
DimensionsObject: 5 ft. 11 1/2 in. × 16 in. × 10 1/2 in. (181.6 × 40.6 × 26.7 cm)
Credit LineElisabeth Claire Lahti Fund
Exhibition History"Art and the American Experience," KIA (Sept. 13 - Dec. 6, 1998).
"Off the Wall: Art in Three Dimensions," KIA (Sept. 17 - Dec. 4, 2011).
"A Legacy for Kalamazoo: Works Acquired through the Elisabeth Claire Lahti Fund, 1998 - 2012," KIA (Sept. 29, 2012 - Jan. 20, 2013).
"Unveiling American Genius," KIA Permanent Collection Exhibition, Traditional, Markin, Nay and Groos Galleries (March 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023).Label TextTorre Pieno nel Vuoto II, roughly translated from the Italian, means "Full Tower in the Void." Pepper has constructed a two-part work consisting of a large, hollow vertical tower that is balanced on one edge of a shorter square base. The pieces are united by the artist's use of materials: each is stainless steel with a baked enamel interior that is glazed white. Two sides of the tower are also painted bright white, while the remainder of the metal surfaces are polished to a shimmery, mirror-like surface which reflects and absorbs any external light, motion, color, or shape.
Beverly Pepper began her career as a painter but switched to sculpture in 1960 after visiting the Hindu monuments at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The sight of those stone monuments, left unattended for centuries, inspired Pepper to explore the relationship between sculpture and its immediate surroundings.
