The Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, where Alexander Calder's The Eagle soars over Puget Sound, Roxy Paine's stainless-steel Split glistens in the rain, and Richard Serra's Wake beckons visitors to walk within its towering forms, stands out as an exemplary civic project: an urban park open and free to all and a dynamic green space filled with great art. The innovative design turned a former industrial site on Elliott Bay into a remarkable place that not only celebrates the inseparable nature of art, urban infrastructure, and landscape but also captures the majestic character of the Pacific Northwest. Using the park as a model of how public-private partnerships can create innovative civic spaces, this informative and visually stunning book will bring the Olympic Sculpture Park to a broader audience beyond the greater Seattle area and will be a vital resource for museum professionals, architects, urban planners, students, and general art lovers.

"A Michael J. Repass Book" -- Title page.

Seattle art collectors Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis were frequent visitors to New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s when they collaboratively built their collection, filling their home with singular works of art. Their shared legacy and passion for engaging thoughtfully, deeply, and personally with art--and the frisson of excitement that arises with such a connection--are celebrated and echoed in this special exhibition catalogue. Spanning 1945 through 1976, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures in Frisson serve as significant examples of mature works and pivotal moments of artistic development from some of the most influential American and European artists of the postwar period, including Francis Bacon, Lee Krasner, Clyfford Still, Philip Guston, Joan Mitchell, David Smith, and others. Together they represent an inimitable archive of innovation and a cross-pollination of leading artistic positions in the postwar years. With twenty new scholarly essays written by leading experts, Frisson provides the first opportunity for in-depth research into and new insights about nineteen noteworthy artworks recently acquired by the Seattle Art Museum.

Envisioned as a new urban model for sculpture parks, the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park not only brings art outside the museum walls but also brings the park into the landscape of the city. This study offers an opportunity to take a fresh look at the city and explore some hypotheses about the wider meaning of an urban design project.

"The Good Life: New Public Spaces For Recreation explores how architects, designers, landscape architects, end artists ore reinventing urban public spaces to meet the needs of 21st-century recreation. Chosen for their innovative solutions and high-quality designs, the seventy projects provide a cross-section of some of the most interesting new spaces for leisure around the world."--BOOK JACKET.