Friday, October 24, 2008 10:31 PM CDT
Duckworth says EIU sculpture 'attends' to many people
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — The resplendent Doudna Fine Arts Center was the result of the collaboration of many talented people, including two world-class artists: architect Antoine Predock, and sculptor Ruth Duckworth.
During a ceremony rededicating the expanded and renovated fine arts center, Predock leaned in front of Duckworth, looked her in the eyes and thanked her sincerely for her contribution.
“Your piece is a catcher’s mitt, a turning point and milestone for the campus,” Predock told Duckworth.
The Modernist sculptor from Chicago said she was “very pleased” by the integration of her artwork with the fine arts center, the north entrance of which is guarded by Duckworth’s bronze sculpture “Attendant Spirit.”
The piece was commissioned for the Doudna Fine Arts Center through the state’s Art-In-Architecture program.
“I’ve come to visit my own sculpture, and you,” Duckworth said during Friday’s ceremony. “I hope you are going to be happy with it.”
Born in 1919, Duckworth fled from her native Germany to the United Kingdom in 1936. She came to the United States in 1964, and then joined the faculty at the University of Chicago.
Perhaps best known for her wall sculpture, “Clouds over Lake Michigan,” Duckworth’s pieces have been displayed in museums and other venues throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
During an informal dedication of “Attendant Spirit” earlier Friday, Michael Watts, director of EIU’s Tarble Arts Center and assistant dean for programming at Doudna, said Duckworth “truly is a citizen of the world.”
He called “Attendant Spirit” “a monumental work of art.”
Duckworth said the sculpture “attends to you students, and it attends to the building. And on the other side, it is welcoming to the people coming to the building.”
She joked that a smaller version of “Attendant Spirit” has “lived in my kitchen,” sometimes watching people on the street and sometimes watching her cook.
In conjunction with the rededication of Doudna, the Tarble Arts Center gallery has been hosting an exhibition of Duckworth sculptures.
The exhibition is an Illinois Currents Series event funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency and co-sponsored with the Tarble Arts Center.
The exhibition’s last day is Sunday.
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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WakeWashington wrote on Oct 26, 2008 2:33 AM: