Museum sculpts map of large-scale campus art

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/birdbathmuseum.jpg” caption=”The bronze bird bath located just outside of the McMaster Museum of Art is one of the most significant sculptures on campus – but it doesn’t seem to have many feathered friends. The installation is one of more than 20 large-scale works of art that can be found at McMaster. Photo by Gabriela Palomo.”]There are more than 20 sculptures and large-scale works of art scattered across
McMaster's campus – including one that can't actually be seen – and they're now easier
to find thanks to a mapping project initiated by the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA).

A new map and self-guided campus tour under development by the Museum highlights both the
sculptures found on campus as well as the artists behind them.

Some of the works, such as the busts of Edward Togo Salmon, Henry George Thode,
Arthur Newcombe Bourns and A. A. Lee found in the lobby of Mills Library, honour
significant figures in McMaster's history. Others are examples of the important
contributions their creators made to various genres of art.

One piece, a bronze-cast tree root resembling a heart, was buried six feet underground
by artist Simon Frank, invoking the myth that something buried can be reborn.

The University's founder, Senator William McMaster, is also immortalized on the campus
that bears his name in the form of a marble bust found in the foyer of University Hall.

“I think they really improve the experience of walking through campus,” said Gabriela
Palomo, the third-year studio art student tasked with researching, documenting and
mapping the sculptures.

According to Ihor Holubizky, the Museum's senior curator, the bronze bird bath found
just outside the doors of the MMA is one of the most significant sculptures at McMaster.
The work, commissioned in 1914 but not finished until 1992 as a result of artist Henri
Gaudier-Brzeska's death in the First World War, counts many campus visitors as fans –
except, most notably, for the birds it was originally intended for.

“Birds won't go near it, and nobody knows why,” said Holubizky, who guesses that the
bath's bowl may be too deep for feathered bathers who like to know what lurks beneath
them.

The MMA's sculpture map is href=”http://www.mcmaster.ca/museum/campus%20sculpture_map2.pdf”>available
online. The Museum is currently working on a guide to accompany the map.