‘Eye of the Sky’ falls upon UCLA

It took a hydraulic crane and considerable manpower, but “L’Occhio de Cielo,” or “The Eye of the Sky,” reached journey’s end Monday.

The artwork, more than 2,000 pounds of Cor-Ten steel sculpted by Italian artist Eliseo Mattiacci, had traveled from Italy to the UCLA campus as a gift from its creator, the latest addition to the university’s outdoor sculpture collection. It was hoisted into place and bolted onto a subterranean concrete pad to give the circular sculpture the illusion of near-weightlessness as it rests on its side on the ground north of Royce Hall.

“The Eye of the Sky” is a homage to Galileo that represents Mattiacci’s interest in “the relationship between human beings, the world, the heavens and the universe,” said Massimo Ciavolella, UCLA’s Italian department chairman.

The installation went perfectly, crowed Mattiacci, 65, by phone from the site. “It weighs more than a ton, but if you look at it, it feels very light, as if it had landed from the sky,” he added, speaking through Luigi Ballarini, an Italian department professor who has written about the artist’s work.

Mattiacci decided to create a piece for UCLA after visiting the university’s Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden (now being renovated). The garden, opened in 1967, is known as a world-class collection of modern and contemporary sculpture, with works by Rodin, Matisse, Henry Moore and Arp. The Mattiacci piece, his first permanent installation in the U.S., is part of an expansion of the UCLA collection beyond the Murphy; it will be followed by a Richard Serra sculpture next spring, which will be unveiled with the opening of UCLA’s Edythe L. and Eli Broad Center.

“The Eye of the Sky” will be unveiled Thursday, along with Mattiacci’s “Orizzontale 2/7,” an indoor wall sculpture in the Italian department. Mattiacci’s drawings for “The Eye of the Sky” will be on display at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood, Thursday through Aug. 30.