© Sally Bjork

Begob Sculpture

December's I Spy answer

by Sally Bjork

posted 1/1/2010

"'I Spy Red to the North' at 1221 Beal by the Robert H. Lurie Engineering Center," emails Vivian Loh, identifying December's feature. Duane Keahl adds the sculpture's name and creator: "Begob by Alexander Liberman. I frequently walk and run in the area and recognized it immediately (for once)!"

Gail Stander emails that the "grand red sculpture" often catches her eye on North Campus. But Loh says that she "always thought the color was orange, and pretty hideous looking as well." Liberman painted so many of his monumental abstract sculptures this color that it has since been referred to as "Liberman red."

A Russian-born American designer, editor, photographer, and artist, Liberman had a fifty-year career at Vogue magazine and its parent company, Conde Nast. Though he was in his mid-forties before he began sculpting, his work can be seen in more than forty cities around the world.

Thirteen entrants identified Begob. Kevin Loh won our random drawing (he is indeed related to Vivian--"some of these take a family effort," he writes). He is taking his $25 gift certificate to Zingerman's.

To enter January's I Spy contest, use the clue and photo on the "Back Page" of the January Observer above to find the spot shown, then follow the directions at the bottom of the page. The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to any business advertising in that issue.   

[Originally published in January, 2010.]