Mountains and Rainbows was Jose Bermudez’s first significant commission in Arizona, purchased by the Scottsdale Fine Arts Commission in 1975 to highlight the newly created Scottsdale Civic Center Park. It was initially sited within a pond-like setting, with arcing water sprays streaming from one side of the ascending triangular sculpture, creating a rainbow effect when illuminated by the sun. An adjoining fountain with 24 floating steel discs surrounded the 22-foot-tall sculpture.
Years of harsh treatment due to the effects of the water on the surface, coupled with a period of vandalism in which the floating discs were stolen, caused the artwork’s character to diminish. When the city renovated Civic Center in the 1990s, the sculpture was restored and restructured to remove the debilitating water elements, and it was relocated to the Civic Center’s northwest corner.
Location: DC Ranch Park, N. 91st Street and, E Trailside View, Scottsdale, AZ 85255, USA
Artist: Jose Ygnácio Bermúdez (1922–1988)
Dates: Completed 1976
Notice: Mountains and Rainbows was moved from Scottsdale Civic Center to DC Ranch Park in 2022.
Scottsdale Civic Center’s 2021–23 renovation project resulted in the sculpture’s relocation to DC Ranch Park at 91st Street and Trailside View, on the east side of the retention pond, with the McDowell mountains behind.