Two of Wichita State’s outdoor sculptures, Love and Grandfather’s Horse, return to campus this spring after taking some time off to freshen up.
Robert Indiana’s Love (1980), north of Grace Wilkie Hall, is one of many versions based on his 1966 painting.
The artist studied in Indianapolis, Utica, N.Y., Chicago and Edinburgh, Scotland. His family’s frequent moves created memories of “American highway culture,” which influenced the bold typography of his art.
Love, taken from the “God is love” spelled out in every Christian Science church, became such an icon that it appeared on T-shirts, posters and even the three-cent stamp in the early 1970s. WSU’s rendering is blue and green; the tilted O “conveys eternity through its never-ending circle.”
Grandfather’s Horse, west of Hubbard Hall, is John Kearney’s tribute to an ancestor, one of the founders of Coffeyville, Kan.
Though he was trained in bronze casting (a 1963 Fulbright Fellowship sent him to Rome to learn the technique), Kearney found his true medium at an auto salvage yard, in an armful of car bumpers.
The creation of a horse from remnants of the cars that “put the horse out of business” is particularly ironic. Kearney is also the sculptor of Best of Breed (1975), a team of oxen south of Corbin Education Center.
The restoration of the two sculptures, funded by the Student Government Association, was carried out over the past seven months by Russell-Marti Conservation Services of Missouri.
Russell-Marti experts also perform yearly maintenance on all of Wichita State’s outdoor sculptures. Both pieces had to be dismantled, cleaned and in Love’s case, repainted.
Damage was the unfortunate result of people’s climbing and sitting on the sculptures. The sculptures will be unveiled in their original locations at 6 p.m., Wed., April 28.
