2008 Woodie Awards
More than just scenery
The truth behind campus artwork
Holly Seabury
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: The Minute
The seemingly mysterious art around campus - elaborate paintings of University scenery, the dice in the Bartlett Hall garden, a red … thing by the Haigis Mall bus stop - is always the topic of discussion. Who made these works and how did they get there?
Perhaps the most noticed yet unfamiliar piece of art on campus is Robert Murray's "Quinnipiac" that stands 18-feet tall and alone outside of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts.
Murray's work was originally part of the 1975 inauguration of the Fine Arts Center and was the first piece of public art to be included in the University Collection. "Quinnipiac" involves a "dialogue" between two sheets of steel.
On the other side of the Fine Arts Center is a work that many may not have known was art at all. "Isle of View" by George Trakas is the bridge and surrounding area that crosses over the campus pond.
Begun by Trakas in 1981, "Isle of View" includes the island, seating areas, pathways, bridges and decking at the south end of the pond, right outside the Fine Arts Center. According to the commission of the University Gallery, "George Trakas belongs to a generation of artists who chose to work in the landscape, bringing sculptural ideas into play with a chosen site."
One of the more mysterious and interesting works on campus is the Bartlett "dice," which originally was not meant to be dice at all. The COR-TEN steel sculpture is entitled "Playfully Nodding to its Fall," created by Steve Oakley in 1983, who was then a UMass undergraduate.
According to Sally O'Shea, program director of the arts council, "It is not intended to be dice or a place for placement of paper plates, but it's impossible to keep up with the removal of them." The sculpture was originally on the west side of the campus pond, where it has been replaced by a seating area.
Another familiar work on campus stands in between Coolidge Hall and the Hampden Gallery in the Southwest Residential Area. A white, vine-like arc is set in a small, springy courtyard so that people walking through can stroll under the sculpture, created in the 1985-1986 school year by Caroline Gould and Todd Richardson, students at the time. Gould now works at University Career Services in Goodell.
UMass holds plenty of murals and paintings throughout its campus, but perhaps some of the most recognized are Garrett McCarthy's, who painted the large mural in the Whitmore Administration Building's café, of the building at sunset, the 25-foot mural in the Worcester D.C. of the campus pond area and two in the Campus Center basement - one of the McGuirk Alumni football stadium and the other of the Fine Arts Center - among five others "floating around campus."
"I was actually contacted to paint scenes of the University after I had graduated [in 1986]," said McCarthy. "I was a UMass grad with an art degree, working for a company that made paintings in Friendly's restaurants. Somehow someone found out about me and saw that I was a good candidate for making murals of the campus, for the campus."
McCarthy, 46, now lives in New York with his own art studio, and from time to time makes visits to UMass as well as to other locations where his art is featured. He said that he is impressed with the care of the murals on campus, noting that even after more than 20 years, faculty and students have been gentle.
The background of the pieces of art around campus may lead to a better understanding of the work, though their meaning to campus is entirely up to the onlooker: a child, a professor or an everyday college student.
Holly Seabury can be reached at hseabury@dailycollegian.com
Perhaps the most noticed yet unfamiliar piece of art on campus is Robert Murray's "Quinnipiac" that stands 18-feet tall and alone outside of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts.
Murray's work was originally part of the 1975 inauguration of the Fine Arts Center and was the first piece of public art to be included in the University Collection. "Quinnipiac" involves a "dialogue" between two sheets of steel.
On the other side of the Fine Arts Center is a work that many may not have known was art at all. "Isle of View" by George Trakas is the bridge and surrounding area that crosses over the campus pond.
Begun by Trakas in 1981, "Isle of View" includes the island, seating areas, pathways, bridges and decking at the south end of the pond, right outside the Fine Arts Center. According to the commission of the University Gallery, "George Trakas belongs to a generation of artists who chose to work in the landscape, bringing sculptural ideas into play with a chosen site."
One of the more mysterious and interesting works on campus is the Bartlett "dice," which originally was not meant to be dice at all. The COR-TEN steel sculpture is entitled "Playfully Nodding to its Fall," created by Steve Oakley in 1983, who was then a UMass undergraduate.
According to Sally O'Shea, program director of the arts council, "It is not intended to be dice or a place for placement of paper plates, but it's impossible to keep up with the removal of them." The sculpture was originally on the west side of the campus pond, where it has been replaced by a seating area.
Another familiar work on campus stands in between Coolidge Hall and the Hampden Gallery in the Southwest Residential Area. A white, vine-like arc is set in a small, springy courtyard so that people walking through can stroll under the sculpture, created in the 1985-1986 school year by Caroline Gould and Todd Richardson, students at the time. Gould now works at University Career Services in Goodell.
UMass holds plenty of murals and paintings throughout its campus, but perhaps some of the most recognized are Garrett McCarthy's, who painted the large mural in the Whitmore Administration Building's café, of the building at sunset, the 25-foot mural in the Worcester D.C. of the campus pond area and two in the Campus Center basement - one of the McGuirk Alumni football stadium and the other of the Fine Arts Center - among five others "floating around campus."
"I was actually contacted to paint scenes of the University after I had graduated [in 1986]," said McCarthy. "I was a UMass grad with an art degree, working for a company that made paintings in Friendly's restaurants. Somehow someone found out about me and saw that I was a good candidate for making murals of the campus, for the campus."
McCarthy, 46, now lives in New York with his own art studio, and from time to time makes visits to UMass as well as to other locations where his art is featured. He said that he is impressed with the care of the murals on campus, noting that even after more than 20 years, faculty and students have been gentle.
The background of the pieces of art around campus may lead to a better understanding of the work, though their meaning to campus is entirely up to the onlooker: a child, a professor or an everyday college student.
Holly Seabury can be reached at hseabury@dailycollegian.com
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