Lao Tzu - Denver, CO [ARCHIVED]
Posted by: 
Outspoken1
N 39° 44.228 W 104° 59.338
13S E 500945 N 4398582
NOTE: Denver Art Museum is building a new entrance and renovating the North Building. This piece has been removed and new placement is unknown.
Waymark Code: WM9XC6
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 10/10/2010
Views: 14
"Thirty feet tall and weighing in at 16 tons, Lao Tzu is a massive public sculpture by artist Mark di Suvero.
With its reddish-orange color, the soaring steel sculpture that dominates Acoma Plaza, between the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Public Library, is a favorite of both children and adults. The artwork is often used as a landmark and is sometimes casually referred to as “the big orange thing,” but the sculpture’s official name is Lao Tzu (pronounced lou dzuh.)
Mark di Suvero is the eleventh winner of the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities. "Mark di Suvero receives the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities for his sweeping contributions to America’s cultural landscape through a daring body of sculpture and an enduring commitment to broaden public venues for the visual arts."
Installed in April 1996, the massive artwork is constructed of industrial I-beams, and weighs 16 tons.
One block and 75 years apart, the newest major addition to the city is the work of internationally known sculptor Mark DiSuvero. The large orange-red metal abstract sculpture, Lao-Tze sits on Acoma plaza between the Denver Public Library and the Denver Art Museum. DiSuvero named the piece for Lao-Tze, the Chinese philosopher-poet from the 6th century B.C. The color was chosen by the artist to appear in maximum contrast to the Colorado blue skies. Standing beside it and looking through its open spaces one can see the reason for DiSuvero's choice." (from (
visit link)
It does take quite a bit of breeze to get the HUGE girder moving. In fact, had it not been breezy, I would not have noticed this piece had a kinetic component!
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