Gracehoper stands 22.5 ft. tall, 23 ft. deep, and 46 ft. long. Weighing about 27 tons, the sculpture was constructed in six segments by the Industrial Welding Company of Newark, New Jersey. In 1972, each segment was assembled on site under the watchful eye of [Tony] Smith. Constructed of bold modular forms based on multiples of tetrahedrons and octahedrons, the complex structure bridges the space between industrial fabrication and the natural environment. At the time, Gracehoper was the largest outdoor sculpture to be assembled in the United States and Smith considered it to be among his most successful.
The title, a pun on the grasshopper it resembles, derives from the mythical beast of the same name in James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake.”
