1939 Born in Los Angeles, California, to Robert Seth Beasley and Bernice (Palmer) Beasley

A brother, Palmer, is three years older

Attends publics schools

1948 Sustains serious injuries in fall from tree and misses a half year of school. Extensive therapy is required to regain his ability to walk

1952 Takes required metal shop class in eighth grade. Discovers a talent for metalwork and spends as much time as possible during and after school, working in the metal shop

1954 Wins prize in national contest in metalworking

1955 Travels to Japan with a group of Boy Scouts sponsored by the Japanese government

1955-57 Seriously involved in building racing cars while attending high school. Helps build a Bonneville “flat-head Ford” racer that breaks the 150 mph barrier

1957-59 Attends Dartmouth College. Takes first art courses. Requests permission to submit sculptures instead of drawings for final course assignment

Studies with sculptor Winslow Eaves; makes first bronze casting. Attends summer school at Otis Art Institute

1959 Transfers to the University of California, Berkeley as a sculpture major. Studies with Sidney Gordin and Richard O’Hanlon


While at Berkeley, Beasley is exposed to sculptors Peter Voulkos, Sidney Gordin, Julius Schmidt, Wilfred Zogbaum, William King, Eduardo Paolozzi, and critic Harold Rosenberg

1960 Wins prize in The Oakland Museum Sculpture Annual with the cast iron sculpture Trillion

Begins studies with Peter Voulkos and Harold Paris, who have just joined the faculty at Berkeley

Helps build the Garbanzo Works foundry in Berkeley, one of the country’s first artist-run foundries

1961 In January, leaves school to hitchhike through Mexico and Central America. Works as a deckhand on inter-island schooners in the West Indies

Returns to Berkeley in September and resumes his studies. Begins showing at the Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles. Wins prize in San Francisco Art Annual with sculpture Lemures

Museum of Modern Art curator Dorothy Miller introduces Beasley’s work to fellow MoMA curator William Seitz, who selects Tree House to be in The Art of Assemblage show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York


Works for Peter Voulkos, casting and welding the work for Voulkos’s first show of bronze sculpture

Meets Willem de Kooning, who comes to University of California, Berkeley for a workshop

1962 Graduates from University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s of arts degree

Chorus acquired for the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art

Rents a dilapidated warehouse in West Oakland and builds his own foundry

1963 First major solo show held at the Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles. Receives important reviews from the Los Angeles art critics

Prometheus II acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and Daedalus acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Selected to be one of eleven sculptors to represent the United States at the Biennale de Paris. His sculpture Icarus wins the Purchase Prize and is acquired by André Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, for the French National Collection

Makes first trip to Europe. Travels to France, Italy, Spain, and Greece

Visits the important art museums as well as the prehistoric cave Altamira in Spain for the first of many visits

1964 First New York solo show at the Kornblee Gallery. Meets David Smith

Buys a run-down, abandoned factory complex on Lewis Street in West Oakland and builds a one-man foundry and living quarters in the new studio

Photographer Joanne Leonard joins him to live at the studio

1965 First San Francisco solo show at the Hansen Gallery. Meets young Canadian Kwakiutl native carver Tony Hunt, who is having an exhibition at the Kroeber Museum at University of California, Berkeley


Buys three of Hunt’s carvings, beginning a lasting friendship with the artist, and initiates a collection of Indigenous art

1966 Second Los Angeles solo show at David Stuart Gallery. University of California, Los Angeles, acquires Dione for the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden

1967 Begins dreaming about transparent sculpture and undertakes research on transparent materials. Settles on acrylic, even though industry experts are discouraging about the possibility of doing large castings in this material

1968 After months of experimentation, achieves acrylic castings up to 4-inches thick

Selected for an invitational competition for the first monumental sculpture to be commissioned by the State of California. Shows the jury his first attempts at transparent sculpture and is selected as a finalist for the commission. Makes his largest casting to date and wins the competition (Apolymon model)

Visits DuPont Corporation headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking technical and financial assistance for the monumental casting of acrylic sculpture. DuPont agrees to supply a generous amount of material but declines to provide any technical help.

Attends the International Sculpture Conference for the first time, lecturing on his developments in acrylic castings.

Visits Willem de Kooning at his new studio in Springs, New York

1969 Through exhaustive research, makes a major breakthrough in casting technology. Develops a process that can cast acrylic sculpture in monumental scale

Builds the mold for the State of California commission and pours 13,000 pounds of liquid acrylic into it. The casting cures for six weeks before the mold is opened

1970 The large sculpture for California is finished and polished. Apolymon is unveiled at the California state capitol and draws abundant national press attention


Participates in a number of important nationwide group shows at museums, including Milwaukee Art Center, Stanford University Art Museum, Sheldon Art Museum, Crocker Art Museum, and University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and at the Osaka World’s Fair

1971 The Wichita Art Museum acquires Tragamitus for its permanent collection



Included in Time magazine article “Transparent Sculpture”

Meets sculptor Kenneth Snelson and begins long friendship

Meets Laurence Leauté, a young French woman visiting California. Three weeks later, travels with her back to Paris, where he convinces her to move to Oakland to live with him

Solo show at André Emmerich Gallery in New York, which becomes his New York dealer

1972–73 Exhibits in two shows in Paris, Salon de Mai and Salon de la Jeune Sculptures

Marries Laurence Leaute in Tacoigniers, France

Makes Tragamon, a 7-foot-high cast acrylic sculpture, for the Oakland Museum of California

Santa Barbara Museum of Art acquires Tacoignier for its permanent collection

Travels with Laurence to Truk in Micronesia to go scuba diving, and then on to New Guinea, where they visit remote villages along the Sepik River

1974 Creates Big Red, a monumental 40-foot-long sculpture. Awarded commission by the federal government for a cast acrylic sculpture for the courthouse in San Diego
National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, acquires Scalar Gyration

1975 Builds a large new building at his studio complex with inside and outside cranes for large-scale metal fabrication

Young sculptor Dan Dykes becomes his chief studio assistant, beginning a long personal and professional relationship

Completes Six Tonner, a large commission in painted steel for Lakeside Center in Illinois

Birth of Bruce and Laurence’s first child, a son, Julien

1976–77 Approached by leading oceanographers to cast an all transparent bathysphere. A scuba diver since his teens, Beasley is intrigued by this use of his invention and agrees to take on the project. Problems turn out to be more difficult than anticipated, but the castings finally succeed, and he builds two submersibles with all-transparent crew compartments


The Exploratorium of San Francisco exhibits the bathysphere before it goes into subsea service.
Daughter Celia is born

1978 Completes three large commissions in metal: Atea, for the Miami International Airport; The Gallup Flyer, for the state office building in San Bernardino, California; and The Hesperides, for the San Francisco International Airport


Meets George Rickey at the International Sculpture Conference in Toronto and begins long friendship

1980 Works informally with professor of crystallography at University of California, Berkeley, pursuing his interest in crystal structure

Lectures at the International Sculpture Conference in Washington, DC, where he meets Isamu Noguchi

1981 Revisits the prehistoric caves in France, including the cave of Lascaux

1982 Visits Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin in Hope, Idaho

Exhibits in 100 Years of California Sculpture at the Oakland Museum of California

1983 Stanford University purchases the 28-foot stainless steel sculpture Vanguard


He makes Arristus, a large stainless steel sculpture, for the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, California

Revisits the prehistoric caves in France and Spain, including Lascaux and Altamira

The American Association for the Advancement of Science publishes a major article on Beasley’s contributions: his invention of the process for massive acrylic casting that is now used worldwide to make all transparent bathyspheres, windows for submersible vehicles, large aquarium windows, and other scientific uses

1984 Makes Artemon, a 32-foot stainless steel sculpture, for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Artemon is included in The California Sculpture Show, an exhibition of twelve monumental sculptures that travels to Bordeaux, France; Mannheim, Germany; and Yorkshire, England


Visits Eduardo Chillida, whom Beasley greatly admires, in San Sebastian, Spain. Chillida takes Beasley to see Wind Combs, his series of great iron sculptures set into the rocks of the Bay of Biscay

1985 Installs Arctos, a 33-foot stainless steel sculpture, for the city of Anchorage, Alaska

1986 Struggles with models for a new style of work involving complex, intersecting geometric forms



Publishes an article on prehistoric sculpture in Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique, a French journal of prehistory.
Receives a commendation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), because the transparent submersible he built located and recovered the crew compartment after the tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger

1987 Participates in the International Steel Sculpture Symposium in Krefeld, Germany, at the Kleinewefers factory
Creates a large COR-TEN steel piece Titiopoli’s Arch in the style of intersecting geometric forms
Begins friendship with German sculptor Ingo Ronkholz

1988 Vigorously pursues the new metalwork, beginning an investigation of computers to visualize complex geometric relationships prior to making them. Assisted by Donald Glaser at University of California, Berkeley

1989 Learns and modifies a three-dimensional computer solid modeling system to allow spontaneous changes to and visualization of complex geometric models prior to physical construction
Lectures on contemporary American sculpture in Hong Kong and Japan
Receives Individual Artist Award from the City of Oakland. Visits Eduardo Chillida in San Sebastian, Spain
San Francisco Bay Area is struck by the Loma Prieta earthquake. Beasley’s studio is only blocks from the Cypress Freeway structure that collapses, killing 41 people. His studio is damaged but not destroyed. He and his son work in the rescue efforts

1990 Makes Pillars of Cypress, a sculpture cast from steel beams that failed in the freeway collapse, as a tribute to his neighbor’s efforts to rescue those trapped in the fallen freeway. Studio requires extensive repair due to earthquake damage
Begins long collaboration doing patinas with artist Lex Lucius
Marti LeBlanc joins Bruce's team as Executive Assistant

1991 The Smithsonian Institution produces a nationally aired TV program on Beasley’s invention of the process for acrylic casting
Visits marble quarries on Pietrasanta and Carrara, Italy, to investigate stone-carving facilities
Commissions his first stone piece, which is 9 feet high

1992 Installs Guardian, an 18-foot-high bronze sculpture, at the Federal Home Loan Bank in San Francisco

1993 Exhibits at the Frankfurt and Chicago Art Fairs and installs Artemon at André Emmerich’s Top Gallant Farm in New York
The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, acquires Bateleur
He is named to the Board of Directors of the International Sculpture Center, where he meets Gio Pomodoro and begins a friendship and correspondence

1994

Solo exhibition, Bruce Beasley—Sculpture at the Kunsthalle Mannheim in Mannheim, Germany
The museum purchases Spokesman II, Knight’s Gambit II, and Messenger II.
Visits Gio Pomodoro in Pietrasanta, Italy

1995 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquires Breakout

1996 Solo exhibitions in Dortmund and Bad Homburg, Germany. Group exhibitions in Europe and the United States
Young sculptor Albert Dicruttalo apprentices with Beasley for the summer

1997 Begins construction of a long-dreamed-of sculpture garden adjacent to the studio



Artist Jennifer Craigie begins as Beasley’s model maker

1998

Work is included in the United States’ representation at the Cairo Biennale, and he and Laurence visit Egypt. The Egyptian government purchases Ally II for its national collection


Lectures at International Sculpture Conference in Chicago, where he presents the ISC Lifetime Achievement Award to Eduardo Chillida
Albert Dicruttalo becomes Beasley’s chief assistant

1999 Travels to southern India to investigate possibilities for carving granite sculptures there
Grounds For Sculpture purchases the 30-foot stainless steel sculpture Dorion

2000 Is one of two Americans on the team investigating the newly discovered prehistoric cave of Chauvet in France, then travels to Portugal to carve granite
Casts an 8,000-pound cast iron sculpture at Siempelkamp GmbH, Germany’s largest iron foundry
Completes commission for a large outdoor sculpture at the University of Texas, Houston
Gio and Etta Pomodoro visit Bruce and Laurence at their home in Oakland

2001 Wins competition for a monumental sculpture at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall
Travels to Portugal to work on sculptures at Singranova granite quarry
Participates in International Sculpture Symposium in Isla Mujeres, Mexico
The city of Bad Homburg, Germany, purchases Spokesman II
Lex Lucius trains Laurence to do Bruce’s patinas

2002 Wins competition for a large outdoor sculpture for the University of Miami, Oxford, Ohio
Installs 20-foot-high sculpture Vitality in front of Oakland City Hall
Returns to Portugal to work on sculptures at Singranova granite quarry
Travels to Thailand, where his brother, Palmer Beasley, is awarded the King Midol Prize in International Medicine
Visits the newly opened Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum on Kagawa-ken Island, Japan
Presents the International Sculpture Conference Lifetime Achievement Award to Gio Pomodoro

2003 Dartmouth College makes a permanent installation of six sculptures by Peter Voulkos and six by Bruce Beasley in the college’s new Baker Library in Hanover, New Hampshire

Installs Ascender IV for the City of Brea, California

2004 Travels to Chongwu, China, to work on granite sculptures
Presents the ISC Lifetime Achievement Award to Christo

2005 Beasley has his first major retrospective exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California
Installs Breakout II at College Preparatory School in Oakland
Installs the 16-foot-high Quest III at La Jolla, California
Continues to have granite sculptures carved in China

2006 Starts using 3D printing and is included in several group shows featuring 3D printing
Builds new studio/museum space with 30-ton-capacity bridge crane
Travels to China for solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Fair. Goes to quarry in remote area to look for a certain quality of granite. Visits remote Dong, Yao, and Miao villages in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces

Travels to Madagascar to visit daughter and son-in-law, Celia and Adam

2007 Selected to do a sculpture for the Beijing Olympics; travels to China for commission discussions
Presents idea for Digital Stone Exhibition to Autodesk
Selected to create a 75-foot-high sculpture for Monterrey, Mexico
Visits the Cave of the Crystals in Mexico, where there are crystals the size of tree trunks

2008 Participates in six group shows, including the Anderson Collection at de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University
Solo Exhibition at Shanghai Sculpture Space
Solo exhibition at Peninsula Museum of Art, Belmont, California
Digital Stone Exhibition, titled The Intersection of Art and Technology, travels to three museums in China
Gathering of the Moons installed at Olympic Park in Beijing for the Olympic Games

2009 Solo Exhibition at Kouros Gallery in New York. Destiny, a 75-foot-high sculpture, is installed along the Ruta de las Esculturas in Monterrey, Mexico

2010 Selected by the City of Shanghai to make a sculpture for the Shanghai World Expo
Installs Arpeggio IV in front of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento



Group Show in Anderson Gallery, Taipei
Presents “A Sculptor’s View of Chillida’s Work” at the conference Material, Space: Eduardo Chillida and His Contemporaries, at the Goethe Institute, Frankfurt, Germany

2011 City of Wuhu, China commissions a large granite sculpture, Twister



Exhibits at the International Sculpture Biennale, Datong Art Museum, China

2012 Solo exhibition at Pangolin Gallery in London
Lecture and group exhibition at Shaanxi University, China
Travels to Iceland to see meeting of Eurasian and North American tectonic plates

Travels to Anatolia to see ancient sites
Begins Rondo series

2013 Exhibition on University of California, Berkeley campus of five Rondo sculptures. University extends the exhibition for three years. University purchases Rondo II for permanent installation
Develops Coriolis Series of 3D printed sculptures. Solo exhibition of Coriolis Series at Autodesk Gallery, San Francisco
Installs large granite sculpture Arpeggio V in City of Palo Alto, California
Commissioned for 60-foot-high Rondo sculpture for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California

Commissioned for 20-foot-high Rondo sculpture for the City of Fremont, California

2014 Consults on and has large 3D printer custom made for the studio
Develops process for using 3D printing in bronze casting
Solo show of Refuge of the Moons series at Waterfront Park, Tiburon, California


Begins the Torqueri series
Works at Pangolin Foundry in England to fabricate large sculpture, Advocate III, for the City of Newcastle on Tyne; present at installation
Installs Stone Horizon at the Palm Springs Art Museum
Travels to Botswana

2015 Participates in Sculpture in the City, a group show in London’s Square Mile
Torqueri VIII, a 22-foot-sculpture, installed for City of Albany, California
Solo exhibition at Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art of Coriolis and Torqueri sculptures
Lectures in various sites throughout Beijing
Installs Unity, a 20-by-38-foot sculpture for City of Fremont, California


Wins national competition for large sculpture for City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Featured speaker at the Brown Symposium, Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas. Presents “A Sculptor’s View of Chillida’s Work” at the conference Material, Space: Eduardo Chillida and His Contemporaries, at the Goethe Institute, Frankfurt, Germany

2016 Solo show of Coriolis and Torqueri at de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University



Collaborates with University of California, Berkeley Dance Department on Rondo Variations
Attends opening of Haining Sculpture Park, China, which has commissioned Ally. Installs Rondo VI at Bill and Melinda Gates residence in Washington state
Installs large sculpture, Rollic, in City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa

2017 The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England, site of previous solo exhibition in 1995, acquires Advocate IV; present at installation
Group exhibition at Chester Cathedral, England. Installs Rondo VI at Mission College, Santa Clara, California
Large stainless Torqueri IX fabricated during China trip
Installs Rondo III at West Valley College, Saratoga, California
Installs Stone Horizon at Santa Clara University
Rungwe Kingdon invites Beasley to Pangolin Foundry to explore possibilities of his using virtual reality for sculpture. This is the beginning of the Aeolis series
Creates The Bruce Beasley Foundation

2018
Solo exhibition at Pangolin Gallery, London
Shows in Masterpiece exhibition in London
Large bronze Torqueri IV is installed for sculpture park in Edinburgh, Scotland. Continues making large pieces of the stainless steel Torqueri series
Starts making the Aurai collage series
Construction begins on the 60-foot-high Rondo series sculpture Sanctuary at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.


Tom Moran, chief curator at Grounds For Sculpture, offers Beasley a 60-year retrospective

2019 Continues work on upcoming Spring 2020 Grounds For Sculpture retrospective
Exhibition of Aurai series of collages at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
Sanctuary is moved from the construction area to the final location at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
China Sculpture Institute commissions 40-foot Ally sculpture for new headquarters in northern Beijing
Produces 13-foot-high version of granite sculpture Meeting for Sculpture Park in Wenzhou, China

2020 Ships six truckloads of sculpture to Grounds For Sculpture for 60-year retrospective; exhibition is delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Two museums book the Aurai collage exhibition for future exhibit
Installs new Aeolis sculpture at private residence in San Francisco
Begins In Defiance of the Virus series. 2021
Sanctuary, after years of construction/landscape planning, is installed
Bruce Beasley: Sixty Year Retrospective, 1960–2020 opens to the public in May, 2021 at Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey

2022Solo exhibition entitled Momentum opens at Pamela Walsh Gallery, Palo Alto, California.

2023Solo exhibition entitled A New Direction opens at Fresno Art Museum in California.