#39 ​Falling Water Santa Cruz XVII, XVIII, and XXII

Jack Zajac
American, b. 1929

​Falling Water Santa Cruz XVII, XVIII, and XXII, 1991–92 and 1998

Bronze, 98” h, 96” h, 85” h

Gifts of Janet Q. and Frederick Q. Lawson, NEHMA

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Jack Zajac originally trained as a painter. In 1954 he received the Rome Prize, a prestigious award that allows artists and scholars to study at the American Academy in Rome for up to two years. While in Rome, Zajac studied the city’s classical sculpture and experimented with sculpting. In the 1960s, he began making a series of sculptures in stone and bronze depicting falling water, breaking waves, and swan forms. Falling Water Santa Cruz is part of this body of work. Located inside the Chase Fine Arts Center, the three vertical sculptures feature soft undulating curves that bely their hard bronze surfaces.