Copeland Sculpture Garden

With 20 sculptures by nationally recognized artists presented in a setting that integrates indigenous plants, the Copeland Sculpture Garden offers visitors a pleasant walk through the Delaware Art Museum’s lush surroundings. Throughout the warmer months, the Sculpture Garden is also the site of community events and music performances. DelArt’s outdoor gallery features a mix of sculptures from the collection as well as items on loan. Dedicated in 2006 by Tatiana Copeland in honor of her husband, Gerret, and his parents, Pamela and Lammot duPont Copeland, the space incorporates the existing wooded areas and lawns that were part of the original Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft estate.

The earliest sculpture in the Garden, Domenico Mortellito’s Protecting the Future, dates from 1966-1967, and is a commentary on pollution. The massive kneeling figure protects the small child from a cloud of pollutants swirling overhead. The collection also includes fine examples of abstract metal sculpture from the 1970s and 1980s. Works of art by Betty Gold, Joe Moss, David Stromeyer, and Isaac Witkin show the tendency at that period to work on an increasingly larger scale. George Rickey’s Three Rectangles Horizontal Jointed Gyratory III fuses aesthetics with precise engineering by using large steel forms that are moved lightly by the wind.

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Collection Highlights

Monumental Holistic VII, 1980, Betty Gold (born 1935), Cor‑Ten steel (TM), 168 × 96 × 108 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Sidney M. Feldman, 1980, © Betty Gold.
Orifice II, 1983, Joe Moss (1933–2018), Painted steel, 112 × 129 3/4 × 27 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Purchased with funds provided by a grant from the Longwood and Crystal Foundations, 1983, © Estate of Joe Moss.
Electroglide, 1981. David Stromeyer (born 1946). Painted steel, 7.6 × 16 × 22 feet. Delaware Art Museum, Purchased with grants from the Longwood and Crystal Foundations, 1983, © David Stromeyer.
Sioux, 1990, Robert Murray (born 1936), Bronze with green patina, 92 x 74 inches, Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund and Partial Gift of an anonymous donor, 1990, © Robert Murray.
Slate Totem II, 1984, John Van Alstine (born 1952), Slate and steel, 108 x 55 x 44 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Steven and Judy Guttman, 1992, © John Van Alstine.
Protecting the Future, 1966‑1967, Domenico Mortellito (1906–1994), Nova Scotia grey sandstone, 48 x 64 x 30 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Adria M. Peterson and Gina M. Reeves, 1996, © Estate of Domenico Mortellito.
Crying Giant, 2002, Tom Otterness (born 1952), Bronze, 173 x 132 x 78 inches, Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2004, © Tom Otterness/tomotterness.net.
Dream Stele, 1988, Bernard Felch (1925–2008), Glazed and painted terracotta bricks joined with mortar, 120 × 33 × 16 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Lindsey Jackson Felch, Meredith Felch Kittrell, and Andrea Felch McMullin, 2016, © Estate of Bernard Jackson Felch.
Circle of Lines, 2011, Stan Smokler (born 1944), Steel, 99 × 98 × 27 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2016, © Stan Smokler.
One Way, 2008, Chakaia Booker (born 1953), Recycled tires and stainless steel, 102 × 48 × 66 inches, Delaware Art Museum, F.V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2018, © Chakaia Booker.
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Crying Giant Magnet

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The Art of Printing with Clay by Mitch Lyons

Learn more about Lyons’s innovative printing process. 99 pp., $40.00