Heavy

April 12, 2022

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December 31, 2025

The six sculptures on view in our first-floor rotunda are some of the heaviest pieces in the Sioux City Art Center’s collection. They are made of bronze, steel or concrete. There are a few reasons why artists use these materials for sculptures, as well as civic statues and public memorials: they are extremely durable and can withstand years of exposure to rain, snow, winter wind, and blazing summer heat. Not only is it hard to move but heavy sculptures, but they create a sense of permanence and emphasize the weight of the artist’s intended meaning.

Richard Dunbar’s Touched by the Sun is a scale model of the massive sculpture that sits on the Art Center’s front lawn. Ann Royer’s equestrian statue Condemarr, is a realistic figure study of the artist’s beloved horse moving through space. John Himmelfarb’s Bend in the Road looks like a massive toy, but the bars and heavy sheets of steel are welded together then covered with mustard colored paint. West Bonnifield was a visiting artist at the Art Center in 1940. The style and spirit of Head of Youth feels of its time, especially the years leading up to World War II. Jeff Baldus’s Second Self is an identical pair of cast tree bark segments. The mirrored human-scale forms embrace and separate as you walk around them. Finally, Andrew Langoussis’s Sojourner: Solar Reef is a huge bronze circle that, like the Dunbar sculpture, reminds us of the sun. Is it of this world or could it be a piece of technology from another dimension?