Sculpture University of Toronto Part 2

July 2017 - Toronto ON

Part 1 - University of Toronto sculpture

Some more sculpture we looked at this week.

As you walk around University of Toronto you will notice the various pecuilar looking statues that are scattered around campus. There are statues and busts littered all around from venerable figures to forms of contemporary art to Canadian symbols that unite us all.

The part 1 post had several venerable figures while this week is a little more abstract.


Kells Nest by Bill Vazan

Crucified Woman- Almuth Lutkenhaus, 1976

According to theologians Doris Jean Dyke and Julie Clague, artist Almuth Lutkenhaus-Lackey sculpted “Crucified Woman” simply as an expression of women’s suffering. It was only reluctantly that she lent the sculpture to a United church in Toronto for Easter one year, unsure of whether she wanted it interpreted theologically. She was overwhelmed by the response, especially of women who for the first time, saw “their suffering, their dying and their resurrection embodied in a woman’s body,” and thereby felt God’s solidarity with the suffering specific to women.

Of course, not everyone interpreted the sculpture this way. Some saw it as heretical, too distant from the male body of the historical Jesus of Nazareth. Others saw it as too sexual, as it depicts a nude female form.

The sculpture was eventually installed in the Victoria University Emmanuel College courtyard, but not without debate and not until 1986.

This one was not easy to find, tucked away in a peaceful corner of the college, a nook to reflect in.

“Neighbours” by artist Joe Rosenthal. It is made of bronze and was installed in 2001.
There's nothing like a good, gossipy catch up with a friend.

Rune - Randy, Berenicci, 2001
Definition of rune
1: any of the characters of any of several alphabets used by the Germanic peoples from about the 3rd to the 13th centuries

As applied here I would imagine it refers to information/education as provided by a university.

The following three pieces do not impress me as much, but art is in the eye of the beholder.


This was fun, though, as a day camp was using it as a shady spot from high noon.

Michael - Anne Allardyce, 1978

Commissioned by the Collegium in 1977 in commemoration of the one hundred and twenty fifth Anniversary of the Foundation of St. Michael's College.

 

Zen West - Kosso Eloul, 1980

A three-piece stainless steel geometric sculpture by the Russian-born Israeli Kosso Eloul sits in the little park that buffers St. Michael's College from the high-rise towers marching westward from Bay Street toward the University of Toronto. One long vertical section tilts against another with a horizontal bar balanced atop the precarious trinity.

Helix of Life - Ted Bieler, 1971
Aptly located at the Medical Sciences Building, it represents the double helix of DNA through its spiraling ribbons of precast concrete.

Anadyomene - Maryon Kantaroff, 1995

Anadyomene in Pliny's Natural History, an epithet of Aphrodite in a picture by Apelles, shown emerging from the sea; the word is Greek, and means ‘rising from the sea’.