Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads …
Hulking Giants
Hulking Giants, part of a project called Tilting at Windmills, are shown on both corners of the Cubic form of the artist’s studio. They are respectively 576cm (19ft) and 384cm (13ft) high and 64cm (2.1ft) wide. Both are attached to a synchronized digital loop player. These two (2) visual art displays rotate at a constant speed of about 3 seconds …
The Black Crown of Perpetual Loss
The Black Crown of Perpetual Loss builds upon artist Larassa Kabel’s frequent use of animals to explore difficult truths about love and death. Inspired by a small Bronze Age figure in The Menil Collection of Houston, TX, Kabel’s bronze sculpture uses a two-headed stag to represent the intrinsic ties between love and loss. The stags are modeled on fallow deer, …
River Constellation
River Constellation is a responsive sculpture evoking a thicket of light and sound, honoring the donors who support Des Moines’ Water Works Park. Forty-five (45) ten-foot tall poles holding 12-inch diameter orbs that softly pulse with light are arranged to suggest the path of the Raccoon River through Water Works Park’s 1,500 acre natural environment. Individual rings mounted to the …
Even Water
Water plays a critical role in a community’s quality of life, from public health and safety to recreation and beauty. Knowing what a watershed is and how we can each play a role in preserving its function and value is important but rarely understood. The West Des Moines Public Arts Advisory Commission use this public art initiative to raise awareness …
LOVE
An icon of American Modern Art — LOVE — 1969-1999, is the signature work of art by artist Robert Indiana. The word Love in upper-case letters, arranged in a square with a tilted letter “O”. Beginning in 1964, Indiana began to create images and objects using the word LOVE. Indiana maintained that a single word could be a viable subject …
Iron Tree Trunk
“Iron Tree Trunk” (2015) a life-sized cast of a tree found in the Jiangxi Province of Weiwei’s native China, unites individual pieces of iron into a whole structure. Its size comes matched by small nuances, down to tree rings around the base and weathered cracks in the bark. This massive cast of a tree references both the cultural tradition of …
RAGBRAI: River to River
This public art work, RAGBRAI: River to River (working title), honors two individuals, John Karras and Donald Kaul, who founded RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world. RAGBRAI is an acronym and registered trademark for the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, which is a non-competitive bicycle ride organized by The Des Moines Register and …
Pumpkin (L)
Yayoi Kusama’s family ran a seed and plant nursery in her native Japan, and the artist grew up surrounded by fields of plants. As a result, pumpkins, usually covered in the artist’s signature fields of polka dots, have appeared in her art since she was a young girl. “It seems pumpkins do not inspire much respect,” Kusama once said. “But …
Miffy Fountain
All is flux, nothing stays still. A Greek quotation attributed to Heraclitus: “All is flux, nothing stays still” is an appropriate way to begin to talk about Miffy Fountain. The sight and sound of moving water is both stimulating and entrancing. Throughout history, people have attempted to shape and control this elusive element in fountains. From the beginning, fountains have …
Gray’s Lake Bridge
Located in Gray’s Lake Park, Gray’s Lake Bridge is an urban gem. After extensive renovations, the area opened as a City park in 2001. It has drawn people looking for a place of peaceful retreat and outdoor recreation and provides a beautiful gateway to downtown Des Moines. In 1998, David and Elizabeth Kruidenier came forward with a vision for Grays Lake Park and …
Volutes Tapestry
The Volutes Tapestry, 98 h x 75 w inches (249 x 190 cm) was designed in 1959 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, one of the great European pioneers of modern art. His signature is woven in the reverse side. “Volutes” is a French word for an architectural description of a kind of scrollwork of shells. This work was made from …
Tall Grass Tapestry
In creating the concept design for this project, Troy Corliss considered the public viewing opportunities for the suspended art on the second floor of the waiting area at the DART Central Station. He believed that a colorful and translucent tapestry symbolizing the tall grass prairie will produce a vibrant and intriguing image above the main entrance of the building. The suspended …
4th & Walnut Looking West ca 1906
A mural painting by Doug Shelton is located in the lobby of the former Hotel Kirkwood, 400 Walnut St., Des Moines. The Hotel Kirkwood, built in 1930, is located in the heart of downtown Des Moines. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Pipes of Pan
Made of welded CorTen steel (corrosion resistant steel) and malleable iron, The Pipes of Pan measures 282 inches (23 feet, 6 inches) high and 22 inches in diameter. It was commissioned in 1992 for one of the first interactive science centers in the world—the Science Center of Iowa. This outdoor public installation was created for the Science Center’s original site in Greenwood Park. Featured are a large …
Transportion Signature
Transportation Signature was created by artist David Dahlquist and RDG IA Inc. (dba RDG Dahlquist Art Studio) for theDes Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) in downtown Des Moines. This screen-wall is located just south of DART’s multi-modal hub, based on the words “Des Moines” written in script. The commission was approved in 2012. The project, 9-feet height and 180-feet long, …
Rainy Day in Des Moines
The mural Rainy Day in Des Moines is no longer accessible. Since 2016, an interior wall on the 2nd floor (skywalk level) of the Equitable Building has covered the mural. Doug Shelton’s mural captures a historical street view of the 19-story Equitable Building which towered above Des Moines’ skyline at 604 Locust Street when completed in 1924. It remained the tallest building …
Untitled
According to the artist, this 2001-2003 sculpture references real psychological states and human movement that are caught between implosion and explosion, between troubling collapse and exuberant release. The author Michele Gerber Klein suggested that the artist’s “work is about longing and impossibility.” Here Shapiro courts gravity as a sculptural partner, and his sculpture plays with gravity’s pull in an interactive …
Untitled
This monumental sculpture is characteristic of the brilliant geometric forms which James Rosati created. It is made up of elements that are rectilinear, but no two lines or planes are parallel. Because of the angles of the planes in these non-symmetrical elements, the forms seem to advance or recede in space. This sense of movement is enhanced by the changing …
Untitled
Ellsworth Kelly’s visual vocabulary is drawn from observation of the world around him—shapes and colors found in plants, architecture, shadows on a wall or a lake. This creative way of communicating has been shaped by his interest in the spaces between places and objects and between his work and its viewers. The artist has said, “In my work, I don’t …
Swirl
This unique public artwork is titled “Swirl ” — the sculpture’s depth is 28 feet, width is 94 feet, and height is 28 feet. Swirl is made up of nine stainless steel uprights and more than 8,000 LED lights that are suspended in the air. The LED lights are programed to display prerecorded images each night at dusk [after sunset and just before night] …
High Trestle Trail Bridge
The High Trestle Bridge stands 13 stories high and spans ½ mile across the Des Moines River between Madrid and Woodward. The “portals” or vertical elements that form a gateway to the Des Moines River Bridge are sculptural symbols that speak to this geology, the cutting and slicing of nature that forms this river valley. Seen from a distance, they …
Thinker on a Rock
In “Thinker on a Rock” the artist substitutes his signature hare for Rodin’s Thinker (1880), making a witty and irreverent reference to one of the world’s best-known sculptures. Other Barry Flanagan statues of “Thinker on a Rock” are located in Utrecht, Netherlands and in Washington, D.C. in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.
In the Morning
In the Morning” is a a cast bronze sculpture, initially formed in clay from a model during a workshop in Upstate New York. Although Anthony Caro is best known for his abstract sculpture in steel and other materials, he is no stranger to the figure. His conversion to abstraction took place after a visit to the US in 1959, but …
Nation at Work
In the 1982 “A Catalog of New Des Mural Projects in Iowa”, co-authors Lea Rosson DeLong and Gregg R. Narber explained that the Grooms’ painting “portrays school activities of children and, in its center, the adult world of work: two classrooms are shown, one obviously a biology class, as well as a shop classroom. The adult work shown is building, …
Quantum Leaf
Quantum Leaf, about 15 feet in diameter and 11 feet in height and signed in the bronze “S PETTUS 2005”, looks like an oversized dying leaf with its edges curled. The sculpture was created as a fountain with water pouring from the leaf-form into a shallow circular pond. This public art project borders Grand Avenue, at the south edge of …
Moonrise, east. august
Rondinone’s series Moonrise—his 2005 figurative sculptures—are eight-foot-high busts derived from masks. Modeled in clay before being cast in aluminum and painted, the sculptures reveal the enduring marks of the artist’s hand. Rondinone has long been interested in the subject of time, and he represents it here by the relationship between moon, tide, and calendar. One of a series of the twelve sculptures, it was …
Greenwood Pond: Double Site
This outdoor installation, commissioned by the Des Moines Art Center, was created from 1989 to 1996 in consultation with local citizen groups, municipal agencies, and scientists. According to Miss, it is one of only eight permanent land works by the influential artist that remain intact, and is considered a pivotal work in her career. The museum selected Miss, Richard Serra, …
Back of a Snowman (White)
Although the two Back of a Snowman sculptures present in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park are displayed together, they are actually two distinct examples of a larger series of sculptures that are identical in their dimensions but vary in color. The simplified form that British artist, Gary Hume, refers to as “snowman” also appears in a series of paintings …
Allée
Widely recognized as a major figure in American art, Davis won many awards and received honors from various museums and art organizations throughout the 1950s. The” Allée” commission marked Stuart Davis’ return to mural painting after a fifteen year hiatus. Davis visited Drake University in June of 1954 to meet with Eero Saarinen to select a location for his commissioned …
Spectral Liberation
The sculpture is in commemoration of Constance “Connie” Newman Belin (1930-1980), a community leader and philanthropist. The work was given by Leonard and Eileen Newman, brother and sister-in-law.
21st Boundary
The abstract steel sculpture is 252″ x 96″ x 48″.Savage & Ver Ploeg Inc., architectects ; Crose-Gardner & Associates, landscape architects.
Man and Pegasus
Man and Pegasus was made in an edition of six. The artist installed one cast at his home and sculpture park in Sweden after his retirement in 1950. The other bronze casts are in an office plaza in Dallas; the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan; the Middleheim Sculpture Park in Antwerp; and in Djakarta, India.
Prairie Emergence
Prairie Emergence represents prairie grasses sprouting from the earth.
Iowa Made: By Land and Hand
“Iowa Made: By Land and Hand” (Diego Rivera meets Grant Wood) – Awarded by the Iowa State Fair Board of Trustees and the State of Iowa, the ceramic mural and floor medallion is the public art focal point at the south entrance to the Knapp Varied Industries Building. The project “Iowa Made: By Land and Hand” (2002) is a 72 …
Confluence
Prominently featured in the main lobby of the 2012 central station of DART (Des Moines Area Regional Transit), Lynn Basa’s terrazzo floor design is made with crushed-up, recycled glass, mirror, and mother of pearl from old buttons. The stylized image hints at the city’s transportation history, with a DART route in yellow and gray stripes for the streets. Two blue …
Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens
The Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens features a 43.5′(L) x 24′ (W) x 37′(H) Asian pavilion atop an undulating bridge spanning a pond that cascades into the Des Moines River with a series of waterfalls. Accented by stone pagodas, lanterns and sculptural rock formations, the Asian garden’s flowing lyrical ambiance transports the strolling visitor to a picturesque Far Eastern paradise. …
A Monumental Journey
NATIONAL RECOGNITION In 2019, the Americans for the Arts awarded A Monumental Journey one of the 50 best public art projects in North America. Honoring NBA Founders The project honors the National Bar Association founders: 12 courageous African-American attorneys who — in Des Moines, IA — changed the course of American history in 1925. At a time when the American …
Hills, Fields, Wind, and Rain
This sculpture symbolizes the earth and the elements and their interaction. It fills a grassy island that is part of a popular business park in a northwest suburb of Des Moines and can be seen from Interstate 80.
Echo-Obelisk
The imagery recalls the history of Urbandale, Iowa, and a beacon marks a new destination/location.The Urbandale High School Corner Commission established a memorial on the south- west corner of 70th and Douglas to commemorate the school site. The 1925 cornerstone from the original brick building and plaques commemorating the graduating class members from 1937-1966 are part of the memorial. A …
Menorah
The sculpture was commissioned by The Waldinger Foundation, Des Moines, Iowa, 1975. It was presented in 1975 to the Tifereth Israel Synagogue by the Waldinger and Duitch Families in loving memory of their dear parents and grandparents, Harry and Golda Waldinger, and Jacob and Jessie Duitch, on the 75th anniversary of the congregation.
Five Stones, One Tree
Four towering, grey limestone blocks stand on this site: two rough-cut pillars, each comprised of two stones, were erected so that their extreme edges are about 22-feet apart. The four mammoth stones are paired so that their smoothly textured (opposite) sides face east/west and their adjacent surfaces that bulge with weathered, geological accretions face north/south. The fifth stone cube, a …
Decoy
Decoy is a bronze-sculpture by the artist Martin Puryear that is composed of two elements, a large, circular disk that appears to hover a few inches off the ground and a periscope-like appendage that protrudes from the edge of the disk. The perception that the base of the sculpture is hovering can be understood in relation to the title of the work; it …
Joy of Music
The “Joy of Music” sculptures, life-size and cast bronze edition of 21, are located throughout the United States including in the Civic Center of Loveland, Colorado; Hastings College, Nebraska; Rodman Center for the Arts, Ripon College, Wisconsin; Dearborn, Michigan; Holland, Michigan; and in the house of the woman who inspired the work of art.
Prairie Winds
Prairie Wind dominates the lobby of a major downtown Des Moines building and is most often viewed from a skywalk level. Its arcs and dips illustrate the wind whipping through the prairie.Asked about his inspiration, Hornecker states: “My work is built around my interest in the history and topography of the landscape. Rivers, land forms, rocks, trees, and the way …
Paragon Prairie
“Prairie Tower” is the largest Italian glass mosaic tile mural in the United States, and pays homage to the history of the native Iowa prairie. A double repeating pattern of native plants in a stylized deco landscape of field and sky serves as the image for the “Paragon Prairie Tower.” The main elements of the concept include the tower constructed …
Plains Aurora
Cork Marcheschi, currently living in San Francisco, CA, was commissioned in 1986 to create “Plains Aurora” for the State Historical Building. The Historical Building is located near the Iowa State Capitol on the east end of downtown Des Moines (today known as the Historic East Village). “Plains Aurora,” a 32-foot sculpture, is made of sandblasted glass blocks on the exterior, …
Family at Corner
The sculpture called “Family at Corner” was created by Watson Powell, Jr. , who served as chairman, CEO and president of American Republic Insurance Company. Following the path made from a drawing by Powell, and the work was cut from a flat-sheet of bronze using a laser cutter. The figurative elements were welded together to create the grouping. In 1967, …
US Senator William Boyd Allison Monument
About the Project Designed by Evelyn B. Longman of New York, the monument’s central plaque picturing Allison is flanked by symbols of “Knowledge” on the left and “Peace” on the right. The former is followed by “Legislature” and “Financial Prosperity,” the latter by “Humanity” and “Agricultural Prosperity.” The topmost figure, “The Republic.” About William B. Allison In 1917, …
Hand and Land: Fingerprint
Fabricated by the artists of RDG Dahlquist Art Studio including: Jen Anderson, Larry Bredeson, Jeff Blosser, Darla DeGroot, Brian Frederiksen, Chad French, Matt Johnson, Justin Richert, Chris Rodi, and Rick Stewart. Special recognition to Don Scandrett for stained glass fabrication. Additional services were provided by Travis Rice, with metal work by Jim Dawson, Ken Hyde and Josh Crook of Iowa …
Untitled
Characteristic of Shapiro’s dynamic work composed of simple rectangular shapes, the bronze Untitled (1985) figure leans back on one arm, with its legs splayed widely across the platform. The fourth appendage can be read as either a downturned head or the second arm reaching upward. The artist’s figures are often posed awkwardly, seeming off balance or in the midst of an ungraceful motion, …
Greenfall
Greenfall grew from a 1986 bronze relief sculpture, titled Critical Juncture/ Fluid Boundary, depicting the clash of cultures between native inhabitants and early white settlers in Iowa. The original concept for Critical Juncture/Fluid Boundary called for a 38-foot wide waterfall to interact with the bronze relief. Greenfall simulates falling water with greenery and one-inch thick curved stainless steel rods spaced each foot along …
Sphere Within a Sphere
Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro’s 18,000-pound outdoor sculpture, “Sphere Within Sphere,” marks the building’s entrance. Set on an axis, the bronze sculpture revolves like a globe. Pomodoro is known for his sphere sculptures; his most famous are at Vatican City in Rome, Italy and the United Nations headquarters in New York. The artist said, “[the sculpture] reflects and accommodates the environment …
A Shift in the Stream
At the beginning of 1995, nationally renowned artist, sculptor and architect Maya Lin (known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial) was invited by the Principal Financial Group to create a work of art in conjunction with the construction of a new building on its corporate campus. The title of the work, A Shift in the Stream, refers to …
Les Vents
Edward Lee Hendricks’ trio of kinetic sculptures, called Les Vents (“The Winds”), are made of aluminum and stainless steel. Carefully crafted, these three graceful, precisely calibrated sculptures move with the wind at unpredictable intervals. Each calls attention to the effects of wind, light, and the changing surroundings. The sculptures are sited in Western Gateway Park, between the Central Public Library …
Steadfast
Steadfastis fabricated from steel and painted; its dimensions are 151 x 72 x 21 inches (383.5 x 182.8 x 53.3 cm). The sculpture was completed in 2000 and installed at its current location in 2008.
Yesterday
The piece is sculpted in hot wax over metal armature, then cast into bronze.
Lincoln and Tad
Created by artists Fred Martin and Mabel Landrum Torrey of Des Moines, this sculpture is titled Lincoln and Tad. It was dedicated 19 November 1961 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. A unique, bronze work of public art, the Torreys’ Lincoln and Tad is the first sculpture that memorializes Abraham Lincoln as a father, rather than as …
Nomade
The sculpture originally appeared in Antibes in the summer of 2007. During the closing of the Musée Picasso from March 2006 to July 2008, the deputy mayor of Antibes requested an outdoor project from curator Jean-Louis Andral. One of his leads was Plensa, as Andral was familiar with his monumental work in several metropolises throughout the world. The artist was …
Wall Drawing #601, Forms Derived from the Cube
This architecturally scaled artwork was made for the I.M. Pei addition at the Des Moines Art Center. In the lobby of this corporate building, it’s deceptively simple geometric structures have been recreated with eye-candy opulence from the same seemingly prosaic instructions he detailed in 1989. LeWitt stressed the idea behind his work over its execution. This wall drawing began as …
The Big Question
The plaza of the Science Center of Iowa serves as a gathering place, a play area, and a science exhibit. The Big Question project transformed the area into an environment that brings to the outside of the building a sense of wonder and inquiry that visitors experience inside the Science Center. The Big Question plays with scale, encompassing infinitesimally small …
Construction
Construction is a billboard-sized outdoor installation with a dense arrangement of vertical, variegated, steel components. The variety of bright colors and orientations, and their placement at different heights is both irregular and rhythmic. Their arrangement evokes both the bold aesthetic of commercial branding, for which the artist, Ivan Chermayeff, became famous, and the experiments in color relationships and abstraction pioneered by artists like …
Circle of Life
The belgian-born, Iowa-based artist Hilde DeBruyne’s abstract sculpture, Circle of Life, symbolizes life’s winding march. It’s dimensions are 11 x 4 x 4 feet.
Untitled Sculpture
The late Cleda and Ray Townsend, founder of Townsend Engineering Company of Des Moines, authorized the production of the sculpture for the Park Fleur Condominiums. The condominiums were built in 1967 and established as a private company in 1977. Townsend’s son Ted explained: “We commissioned those pieces from a local junior high school art teacher named Peter Marasco.” The monumental …
Iowa Workers Monument
Iowa is the 38th state to create a monument to its workers. The bronze sculpture represents four interlocking arms and hands, dedicated to the energy and integrity of the Workers of Iowa. It is constructed of welded bronze strips, supported by a stainless steel pipe interior armature. A reinforced concrete base for support was cast in place and covered with …
Untitled Relief with Covered Wagon
Above the low relief of a covered wagon crossing a prairie it reads: “Ashworth Park. The gift of Charles and James T. Ashworth to the people of Des Moines – December 4, 1924. Overland from New Hampshire they came in 1851. Here on the neighboring prairies respected and loved they lived to witness the transformation of a primitive land into …
Wall Drawing 1238, Whirls and Twirls
The curvilinear forms as complements to the undulating landscape, while the vivid colors provided a bold contrast with the gray tones of the interior lobby. “Whirls and Twirls” is an example of LeWitt’s highly saturated colorful later works made in acrylic. While the forms are curvilinear, playful and seem almost random, they are drawn according to an exacting set of …
Untitled (Three Dancing Figures, version C)
Created in primary colors, Untitled (Three Dancing Figures, Version C) is a “tribute to Keith Haring’s love of music and club culture of the 1980s,” said Gilbert Vicario, who is currently Chief Curator of the Phoenix Art Museum. He went on to say: “The imposing sculpture, although very different from the ephemeral, quickly rendered wall murals that he is known for, celebrates …
Ancient Forest
Ancient Forest was commissioned by John and Mary Pappajohn for the Sculpture Park. Deborah Butterfield uses found materials and assembles them into horse-shaped sculptures that vary in size and media, although most often are comprised of wood.This particular sculpture, at first glance, appears to be composed of bundles of logs and tree-branches (an appearance that conforms to her preference for found materials). However, …
Panoramic awareness pavilion
Panoramic awareness pavilion (2013), was commissioned for the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, Iowa. It is at once a large-scale light sculpture, which demands distance for proper appreciation, and a pavilion, which invites its audience to enter, explore, and engage with the work from within the structure. The circular work is composed of 23 panes of …
The Birth Place of Des Moines
The porcelain tile mural, 34 feet by 4 feet, is a pictorial timeline of the history of Des Moines and marks the area’s first non-Native American settlement of 1843. The mural is built into the brick wall near a 1840s log cabin on the west bank of the Des Moines River, north of its confluence with the Raccoon River−the birthplace …
Des Moines Color Field
The installation is composed of 190 repurposed glass domes from front-loading washing machines that are internally lit with colored programmable LED lights. These lights can be played in a computer sequence that produces an infinite patterns and rainbow-color combinations. The artwork was executed for the Davis Brown Tower by an artist who goes only by the name, STRETCH.
Column of Change
Column of Change is a bronze bas-relief with numerous abstracted human figures moving across the piece. The figures more in an upward direction, represent the overcoming of obstacles and setbacks.
The Puzzle of Life
The Puzzle of Life is a large-scale mural painted on the west exterior wall of PACE Juvenile Center. The artist Barri Lester lead the design and fabrication process with the assistance of students from PACE. This public art project was inspired by participating young people, ages 12-17, of this alternative school, who had experienced problems with school or the law. The …
Three Cairns
“Three Cairns” is the largest project in the Western Hemisphere by British artist Andy Goldsworthy. Cairns are stone structures [or markers] that identify a place of great importance. Their dry-stone construction represents an engineering feat as well as artistic creativity. The process of shaping and stacking the stones into a simple oval shape is challenging and intense. The form symbolizes …
Juno
Like “Juno,” all Butterfield’s full-sized horses each have their own names and personalities. They are often described as being distant, reflective, inviting; mystical, spiritual, intangible; playful, peaceful, graceful. They are never associated with people, with riders, and are often portrayed as if they were unaware of a human’s presence. Deborah Butterfield’s casting process: Butterfield assembles the original by fastening logs, …
Path of Peace
Dedicated to peace and peacemakers, a ten-ton limestone sculpture, named “Path of Peace,” by Ron Dinsdale, portrays of three doves. It was installed on May 10, 2012 near Interstate 235 just south of Des Monies Area Community College’s Urban Campus. The sculpture was created out of a solid 14-ton block of Indiana Bedford limestone, one of the materials used to …
Victory Victory
“Victory Victory” is a monument honoring black officers from the First World War and the first Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) of the Second World War. This welded stainless steel sculpture takes on an abstract shape whose fluid and flamelike forms recall the splashy brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionist painters. The sculpture is surrounded by a large granite reflecting pool with …
Willy
“Willy” is one of Smith’s important early large-scale works and masterfully combines abstract geometric forms with human characteristics. “Willy” involves complex polyhedral shapes. The flat black planes of steel twist into each other, suggesting an anthropomorphic (or human) form. The title comes from a Samuel Beckett play “Happy Days” (1961), in which the character “Willie” crawls submissively around his wife, …
Crusoe Umbrella
A year prior to visiting what would be the site of their first-ever public art commission, Claes Oldenburg and his wife and collaborator, Coosje van Bruggen, paid a visit to van Bruggen’s father, who in retirement had begun to grow a long and ragged beard. The couple joked that this beard gave him the appearance of Robinson Crusoe, the famous castaway character …
The Theater
The dimensions of The Theatre is 10 x 28 x 14 feet.
Until the Woods Began to Move
This public art project by Anna Gaskell, a site specific project at the Iowa Events Center, was approved by the Polk County Board of Supervisors in 2005. The work of art, called “Until the Woods Began to Move”, is composed of a hedge maze and video; the artist’s statement is incorporated into the site. Gaskell’s art is intensely psychological. She’s …
Seating for Eight and Café Table 1
As a locus for explorations of both form and function, chairs occupy a position of singular importance. The works presented here attest to his passion for combining fine art and practical design and, in the process, opening up the scope of inquiry in both disciplines. The natural shapes of these chairs, and their beautiful surface—variously rough and smooth—inject aesthetic pleasure …
World War I Monument
Signed “C. H. Niehaus 1925”, The World War I Monument in Des Moines, Iowa, was created by Charles Henry Niehaus. About Iowa in World War I Of the 500,000 Iowa men registered for the draft, about 115,000 served in the armed forces. Camp Dodge a few miles northwest of Des Moines became a major training center for new troops. Soldiers …
Gymnast III
Gymnast III is cast in bronze and more than seven-feet tall. The “Gymnast” series of sculpture captures the basic strength of a bending and stretching athlete, rather than with the kind of virtuosity that brings an Olympic audience to its feet. Limbering up, not performing, is its subject matter. The figure is highly simplified. Although neither head, nor arms nor …
Marriage
“Marriage” is one of Smith’s important early large-scale works and masterfully combines abstract geometric forms with human characteristics. Formally, “Marriage” offers an arch for the viewer to pass through, and presents a dialogue between the various connecting rectangular blocks. The work’s title, a dominant cultural institution, implies a specific interpretation for the sculpture.
Plantoir
The French noun plantoir is a pointed hand-tool for making holes in the ground for seeds or young plants. This tool often called a dibble and sometimes a trowel. This whimsical, oversize gardener’s trowel titled “Plantoir” created by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, was designed specifically for outdoor viewing in a garden setting. The brilliant red digging tool is an exaggeration in form and color. …
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil War Monument
The State of Iowa erected this monument, funded partially by refunded war taxes, to commemorate Iowans who fought during the Civil War. The monument was approved in 1888, the cornerstone was laid in 1894, and the structure was completed two years later. Because a controversy developed over the location and artistic details of the monument, nearly 50 years passed before …
A World of Possibilities
Viola Frey’s giant ceramic sculptures of men and women are among the under-appreciated wonders of late 20th-Century art. Rising upwards of eleven feet, they have an imposing physical presence and a clunky, cartoonish ugliness. Roughly glazed in strident colors and made in sections that fit together like blocks in a stone wall, they could be mistaken for a …
Spider
The artist, Louise Bourgeois, has been using spiders in her work since the 1940s, and in the 1990s began sculpting them into colossal forms like this. Surprisingly, she sees them not as ominous predators, but as a symbol for her much beloved mother. For the artist, whose work has explored themes of childhood memory and loss, the spider carries associations …
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