EPHRAIM PELEG (B. 1936)
“SIX TRIANGLES” 1979
GIVEN BY PHIL AND MURIEL BERMAN, 1983
LOCATION: BREEZEWAY BESIDE FAGIN HALL, 418 CURIE BOULEVARD
Tucked beside Fagin Hall in a courtyard of grass and brick stand six thin metal triangles, jutting into the sky like steel stalagmites.
Featuring a rainbow-like color scheme—red, purple, blue, green, yellow and orange—the triangles have a tragic meaning linked to a dark past, inspired by those killed in the Holocaust and created by a survivor.
“Six Triangles” is the work of Ephraim Peleg, 88, a Polish-born artist now living in New Jersey. His parents both died in concentration camps, but he and his brother survived.
After World War II ended, he received a watercolor palette, which he kept for many years and which started his artistic journey. He got serious about art around age 27, beginning with painting, and took up sculpture while living in London.
Peleg came to the United States after meeting art collectors Phil and Muriel Berman and being hired for a commission in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at Cedar Crest College. The Bermans donated “Six Triangles” to Penn; it was created in 1979 and installed on campus in 1983.
Peleg’s use of the number six in his work is intentional.
“I really see in my sculpture, representation for the six million killed by the Nazis,” he said in in a 1999 oral history interview with the USC Shoah Foundation. “For the future, for the Jewish people to be strong and powerful to fight the Nazis.”
His use of bright, cheerful colors is also purposeful. “I want to bring children to ask what it is about,” he said, discussing another similarly colored piece. “It’s easy for children to come to the sculpture.”
Lynn S. Dolby, director of the Penn art collection, says encountering “monumental sculptures” enhances peoples’ experience of public space, connects them to their history, and encourages reflection.
“In ‘Six Triangles,’ we really see the alchemy of the artist who, in this particular sculpture, has taken something tragic and has transfigured it into a work that acts as both a memorial and an expression of hope,” she says.
“Art Matters” is a Penn Today series highlighting the many works of fine art on and around the University’s campus.
