Steel and geometry fed sculptor's passion OBITUARY Bert Flugelman. Artist. Born Vienna, January 28, 1923. Died Bowral, February 26, aged 90. BERT Flugelman's art over the decades was shaped by his passion, commitment and humour. I first met him in 1987 when he was head of the sculpture department at the University of Wollongong and I recall his lively wit and encouragement of his students. He had a twinkle in his eyes that was still there more than 20 years later, when I interviewed him at the National Gallery of Australia for International Museums Day in March 2009. His major sculpture, Hargrave Memorial, was installed on the Illawarra escarpment in about 1988, the large stainless steel form flown into its position by helicopter, suspended in the sky like a scene from Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Flugelman's soaring tribute to Lawrence Hargrave, an aeronautical pioneer whose experiments for flying machines were carried out at Stanwell Park in the 1890s, seems a fitting metaphor for his own life and artistic contribution. Born in Vienna in 1923, Flugelman came with his family to Australia in 1938, as a 15-year-old, in flight from the Nazis. It seemed a cruel blow that, when he returned on a visit to his city of birth after the war, he contracted polio. It was perhaps these challenging formative experiences that inculcated in him the need to live life with courage and determination; to make the most of his lively intellect, his passion for experimentation and his artistic talent. In the late 1960s, his adventurous spirit was encouraged at the Tin Sheds, at the University of Sydney, where he ran the gallery and art workshop. This initiative, instigated by Donald Brook, encouraged a cross-disciplinary approach as well as conceptual and performance art. In the NGA interview in 2009, Flugelman recalled those heady days as an invigorating time of burning euphoniums, feathered rooms and performance art on peak-hour buses. Art was experimental and it was for everyone. In the 70s, Flugelman undertook numerous sculpture commissions, although his interest in ephemeral art reasserted itself in 1975 when he buried a large aluminium sculpture, Tetrahedra, in a trench in Commonwealth Park in Canberra, documenting the process in photographs and on film. When a collector wanted to acquire the work, Flugelman agreed: "I set the price quite high and told him he could own it straight away. I wasn't going to dig it up. I wanted to challenge what art could be. He could own the idea. The offer was declined. Essentially a humanist, Flugelman won the Mildura Sculpture Prize in 1967 for his sculpture Equestrian and by the following decade he had determined on his course as a sculptor, while continuing to work across a range of media, including prints and paintings. Looking back, he recalled: "I ultimately found objects more exciting than ephemera. This was a personal choice. I wasn't legislating what art should be. Flugelman began using simple, irreducible geometric solids, such as the pyramid, tetrahedron, cube, cone and sphere. Having experimented with aluminium and fibreglass, he found he preferred working with stainless steel. I've stuck to that ever since. It has never let me down at all. I had an exhibition in 1972 where I made doubles of the spheres and cones, end to end. The geometric forms and discipline within geometry itself taught me that, within those parameters, you can be as inventive and creative as with anything else. Between 1973 and 1983, Flugelman lived in Adelaide, where he made a great contribution as an inspiring teacher and artist, also participating in the Experimental Art Foundation. He undertook significant sculptures for the Adelaide Festival Centre and his balancing stainless steel Spheres, from 1997, (known as the "Mall's balls") in the Rundle Mall are a city landmark. Over the years, he faced numerous challenges and controversies in relation to public commissions, including the movement of site-specific works without due care and consideration for his artistic integrity. Despite the frustrations, his positive spirit remained strong and in the case of Pyramid Tower, the Dobell Memorial sculpture in Sydney, he eventually enjoyed the possibilities opened up by its relocation. In 1976, Flugelman was commissioned to undertake Cones for the NGA, a work that remains one of his best-loved sculptures. A series of double cones that interconnect across more than 20m, it appears both substantial and animated, as if dancing on points. It was a feat of engineering that took four years to complete; eventually transported to Canberra on two low-loaders under police escort, it arrived in the new Sculpture Garden on time for the opening of the gallery by the Queen in 1982. With that characteristic twinkle in the eyes, Flugelman remembered the council members of the gallery enquiring about conservation issues and the longevity of the work. Finally, after consulting a number of experts, I got a letter from a metallurgical laboratory saying that the grade and gauge of steel used meant that under normal conditions the work would last approximately 75,000 years. I got a letter back from the gallery director at the time, James Mollison: "Dear Bert, that will be very satisfactory." As the work has settled in to the site, the garden has grown up around it, partaking in its reflective surfaces like the many visitors of all ages who continue to delight in its vitality. Flugelman enjoyed the idea of the work's mutability and its constancy; its ability to stand the test of time and be inclusive, drawing a panoply of life into its orbit. The NGA under Ron Radford's directorship acquired Double spiral with graffiti in 2008, the year it was made, and a major survey of his work was held at the Drill Hall Gallery at the Australian National University in 2009 to considerable acclaim. A warm, generous human who was open in his thinking and who crossed many boundaries, Flugelman is survived by his loving wife, Rosemary, and four children, as well as a considerable body of works, both intimate and monumental, which will inspire for at least the next few thousand years. Deborah Hart is senior curator, Australian paintings and sculpture post-1920, at the National Gallery of Australia.