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Circle Blue

Photo: Mark Woods
Photos created under SAM Work for Hire Agreement

Circle Blue

1970

“I aimed to cut out large chunks of ocean or sky and say: here it is.” – De Wain Valentine.

Valentine pioneered the use of industrial plastics for monumental sculptures beginning in the 1960s. His elemental shapes create sleek translucent surfaces that reflect light and engage with the surrounding space. One might also see this flat disk of blue resin as an avatar for planet earth, with its surface made up of 70% water, as seen in the 1972 “Blue Marble” photograph taken from Apollo 17, the first whole and fully illuminated photograph of our blue planet.
Cast polyester resin
Diameter: 70 x 5 1/2 in. (177.8 x 14 cm)
Gift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2020.15.37
Photo: Mark Woods
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Wright Exhibition Space, 9 from L.A., Sept. 26, 2013 - Apr. 25, 2014.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM