Construction in Space and in the Third and Fourth Dimensions

Construction in Space and in the Third and Fourth Dimensions

When Finnish–American architect Eero Saarinen designed a new building complex for the University of Chicago Law School in the 1950s, he suggested that a work by Antoine Pevsner would complement the quadrangle well. Saarinen was particularly fond of Pevsner’s work, which has found homes in at least two of his projects, including in the reflecting pool in our Laird Bell Law Quadrangle. Saarinen had advocated for a work by Pevsner to be placed on that particular site, but his death in 1961 left this process unresolved. Luckily, alumnus Alex Hillman (’24) donated Construction in Space and in the Third and Fourth Dimensions to the Law School in 1963.

Antoine Pevsner, a Russian–born Constructivist artist, made this work explicitly to evoke the passage of space–time, as the title indicates. The twisting bronze material seems to radiate in different directions, and a viewer moving around the sculpture in time may notice the changing aspects of its thin, angular planes and of its hyperbolic curves.

Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962)

subject and description taken from a longer study written by Will Ulman, a student in Art History.

Constructed 1962
Installed 1964

Gift from Alex L. Hillman, '24

Bronze
Height: 288 in. (731.5 cm)
Weight: 3 tons

Sculpture