Browse Public Art

Luminaries

Norman Courtney

King County International Airport

Metal and glass combine to conjure timeless celestial spaceships.

Norman Courtney (1947 – 2017). Luminaries, 2003. Aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. King County International Airport, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com

Elaborately constructed of aluminum, stainless steel, and glass, Norman Courtney’s Luminaries fuse past and future, old and new.

Bejeweled like 1930s pendants, these functional artworks reference elements of Art Deco design in a nod to the history of the King County International Airport terminal building. They also conjure that era’s space-age imagery. Streamlined forms recall Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, both avant-garde comic strips in their time. But with his contemporary sensibility, Courtney takes the sum of these parts somewhere new and undiscovered. Combining perforated structural bars used in airplane construction with vivid, glowing glass, he creates the effect of timeless celestial spaceships.
Continue Reading ›
Norman Courtney (1947 – 2017). Luminaries, 2003. Aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. King County International Airport, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com
Norman Courtney (1947 – 2017). Luminaries, 2003. Aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. King County International Airport, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com
 

About the Location

King County International Airport

The site of the King County International Airport, also known as Boeing Field, has been a hotbed of aviation activity since the early 20th century when the flat land along the Duwamish River hosted early air shows. The location was home to the young Boeing Airplane Company before the citizens of King County voted in…

Read more about the art and artists at King County International Airport. More >