Science and Sculpture
Credit: Mark Menjivar
Landmarks, the university’s public art program, grew out of a 2005 UT System policy to set aside a small percentage of capital improvement project funding for the acquisition of public art. Throughout the College of Natural Sciences and UT, Landmarks’ growing collection is transforming campus spaces with public art that’s free and accessible to all.
1. Circle with Towers by Sol LeWitt
A pioneer of Minimal and Conceptual art, LeWitt is fascinated with simple geometric forms. This structure outside the Gates Dell Complex consists of eight towers of concrete cubes. The towers are four cubes wide and spaced eight cubes apart atop a low circular wall.
2. Monochrome for Austin by Nancy Rubins
Credit: Vivian Abagiu
This imposing cluster of 70 aluminum canoes has become a new focal point at the heart of campus, 24th and Speedway. Tethered by slender steel cables and seeming to be delicately balanced over passersby, the canoes form a sculpture that the artist explains as “exposing math.”
Credit: Ben Aqua
3. Pedogna by Walter Dusenbery
Careful geometric calculations went into carving a sculpture on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that today resides in the Life Science Library, located in the UT Tower. A limestone called travertine contains mineral and biological impurities within the white stone, imbuing the piece with a rainbow of hues. It celebrates the wonders of nature over time.