Stainless Steel Statue

History

In 1963, the State Highway Commission granted the Washington State Arts Commission 1% of the total construction costs of the new State Highway Administration Building (later renamed the Transportation Building) to place works of art inside and around the exterior of the building. The Arts Commission selected the pieces, and the State Capitol Committee (comprised at that time of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and State Lands Commissioner) gave final approval for outdoor pieces.

The Arts Commission considered the works of 14 artists and purchased six outdoor sculptures, with the criteria that the art be “compatible with the building and plazas in scale and materials, even though clearly having a life of their own.” The sculptures should also not require maintenance. Of these six sculptures, two were selected. One of these was Lee Kelly’s Stainless Steel Statue. Although there was some initial resistance to the piece’s non-traditional nature and cost of $23,000, the State Capitol Committee eventually approved the selection. 

In the five years it took to design and create the 28-foot wide by nine-foot-tall steel sculpture, Kelly aimed to “deal with the ancient attitudes of man and his relationship to what he makes with his mind and hand.” He also explained the shape of his final piece saying, “the forms are simple in that everyone can ‘understand’ them. The mystery is in their interrelationships, the spaces they create, as well as the relationship to the building and plaza.”