Lawrence Beck’s gleaming, abstract, two-ton sculpture Poktalartok landed at the King County International Airport upon completion of the airport’s Terminal Building, taking its name from an Alaskan Yup'ik word meaning “floating shape.”

One in series of floating shapes made by Beck, it serves as an inukshuk (meaning “sculptural presence”), a form nomadic Yup'ik people traditionally created with piled stones to mark places they had been. “It is what you perceive it to be; it is what you bring to it,” Beck said of the work.

Born in Seattle, Beck (1938–1994) was a sculptor of Yup'ik heritage. He studied with George Tsutakawa and Everett DuPen at the University of Washington and, in the early decades of his career, made formalist, abstract sculpture at a large scale, often using found metals and objects. In the 1960s, he also belonged to the neo-Dada Shazam Society alongside novelist and then-art critic Tom Robbins and others; the group produced various performances and happenings. In the 1980s Beck departed from abstract public art and embraced the Native Alaskan tradition of mask-making, creating contemporary interpretations of spirit forms using found materials. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States, particularly in Washington and Alaska. Papers and photos from his estate are held in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

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King County International Airport

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