“Vessels” by Billy Lee. Photo © Billy Lee.
Donning a well-worn pair of work gloves, he carefully arranges and re-arranges the pieces. He pauses, considers the angles and artful geometries of the dark, polished metal, and then fits them into a grouping for what may well become his next internationally-acclaimed sculpture.
Lee, a professor of art, is one of an elite group of artists from more than 80 countries to have a work accepted for inclusion in the Olympic Fine Arts 2008, a cultural event organized by the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese Olympic Committee.
Lee's sculpture “Vessels” will be displayed during the Olympics and then will travel for two years before being permanently installed in the Olympic Fine Art Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City. The International Olympic Committee held the first Olympic sports and art contest in Sydney for the 2000 games. The second contest was in Athens in 2004, intended to promote the development of sports culture.
“There is a great deal of energy and excitement in Beijing right now,” says Lee, who already has six sculptures on permanent display in China. This fall he will be on a research leave there working a series of stone sculptures and visiting with artists in Beijing.
“Vessels” depicts three conjoined vessels formed by parallelograms and triangles. The work, which stands a little more than two feet high, is meant to be viewed from different angles. “As you move around it, it looks different,” says Lee, who remarkably created the piece in a scant two weeks. “I started ‘Vessels’ from a very quick sketch,” says Lee. “From there I put it on matte board and then made steel models of various proportions.” Lee was inspired by the spirit of the Olympic Games to create a work that he says is both ethereal and powerful.
For Lee, creating sculptures in materials from marble to iron is a labor of love. He can often be found working long hours in the foundry of the Gatewood Studio Arts Building. There, amid welding tools, anvils, drills, stray dollops of solder and half-finished sculptures on paint-splattered stands, Lee teaches students how to cast in bronze, aluminum and iron. “When everything comes together and the sculpture works, the failures and physical, back-breaking work is all forgotten,” says Lee.
Lee is consistently invited to exhibit and place works throughout the world. His numerous awards include the Giacomo Manzu Special Prize at the 7th Henry Moore Sculpture Exhibition and the Rodin Prize for his work exhibited in the Hakone/Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum in Japan.
By Jill Yesko, University Relations
Photography by David Wilson, University Relations
