Artwork copyright Beverly Pepper. Photo courtesy of Western Washington University, by Rod del Pozo.

Normanno Wedge, 1979

Beverly Pepper
American (born 1922, died 2020)

Location: Western Washington University, Bellingham

About the Artwork

Normanno Wedge was created by the late sculptor Beverly Pepper in collaboration with the Bernardini Foundry in Terni, Italy. The composition evokes balance and weight, and references tools and civilization. The minimal geometric forms interplay and change with the viewer's shifting perspective, resembling an altar at certain angles, a column at others.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Western Washington University.

About the Artist

Artist Beverly Pepper (1922-2020) was known internationally for her sculptures and installations for outdoor and public spaces. Metal was her main material and she was the first artist to use Corten steel which weathers into an attractive rusty-looking finish. Many of her metal sculptures are built around the existing landscape. In her own words, "I wish to make an object that has powerful presence, but is at the same time inwardly turned, seeming capable of intense self-absorption."
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Pepper studied advertising design and philosophy at the Pratt institute in Brooklyn. She continued to study art painting and art in France and Italy. In 1960 she travelled to Cambodia and visited the Angkor Wat temples. She later said, "I walked into Angkor Wat a painter and I left a sculptor."