Sculptor Fred Eversley , who for fifty years made the parabola his subject in pellucid, jewel-toned resin works, died on March 14 following a short illness. He was eighty-three. His death was confirmed to Artnews , which first reported it, by David Kordansky Gallery, which represents him.
A onetime engineer tasked with designing labs for NASA, Eversley in the 1960s was a key player in the West Coast Light and Space movement alongside Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and James Turrell. Unlike his compatriots, Eversley brought science and metaphysics to bear in his explorations of light, routinely applying centripetal force to create sleek, luminous works whose transparent forms radiate a crystalline energy that can seem cool and warm at the same time. “My commitment and focus over all these years stems from my belief that energy is the source of everything in the world,” Eversley told Artforum in 2022.
“Nothing exists without energy. It’s the most essential concept for the basis of all life. So I just tried to push that idea as far as I can.
” Fred Eversley was born in Brooklyn in 1941, the oldest of four children. His father was a civil engineer at an aviation company, and his mother was a schoolteacher and a PTA leader. His curiosity piqued by reading about the experiences of Isaac Newton, Eversley at the age of fourteen filled a pie pan with Jell-O and set it spinning on the family’s turntable, causing a light-reflecting concave parabola to appear in the quivering subst.