The sculptures “Homage to Galileo” and “A Quantum Figure” in the West Village area of Northeastern’s Boston campus were created by pioneering physicist David Bakalar.
Title: “Homage to Galileo” (1976) and “A Quantum Figure” (1971)
Artist: David Bakalar (b. 1924)
Materials: Stainless steel
Size: 9 feet and 7 feet
Location: Boston campus, on Bills Court between West Village G and West Village H
About: Long before David Bakalar was an artist creating sculptures such as “Homage to Galileo” and “A Quantum Figure,” he was a physicist pioneering the development of semiconductors.
Bakalar, who earned a Ph.D. in physics, worked for Bell Labs as the development of transistors was taking place. In 1952, at age 28, he started his own company making diodes. Bakalar’s company, Transitron, sold hundreds of millions of gold-bonded germanium crystal diodes. By the late 1950s, Transitron was among the top three U.S. producers of diodes and rectifiers, challenging companies such as General Electric, RCA and Raytheon, according to the Computer History Museum.
In 1984, Bakalar decided to retire from the company and focus on his interest in art. He had been collecting paintings and had purchased a sculpture from George Segal, a sculptor and painter best known for his life-size white plaster sculptures of human figures. Bakalar then imagined another sculpture and commissioned Segal to do the project.
“When the piece was done, [Segal] was very excited and he said, ‘It’s one of my best pieces.’ And, that’s when I said to him, ‘George, if I can design one of your best pieces, I don’t need you anymore. I’m going to become a sculptor,’ and that’s how it started,” Bakalar said in an interview with the Computer History Museum in 2013.
Bakalar’s work explores geometric and organic forms, reflecting his science background.
A 9-foot stainless steel sculpture, “Homage to Galileo” is an abstract piece that features interconnected circular and elliptical shapes with a design that resonates with Galileo’s revolutionary ideas about motion and the universe.
“A Quantum Figure” is a 7-foot stainless steel sculpture situated near “Homage to Galileo” in the West Village area of the Boston campus. The work exemplifies Bakalar’s integration of figurative and geometric forms, reflecting his background in physics. The sculpture invites viewers to explore the relationship between scientific principles and artistic expression.