Sculpture Makes Its Return to Campus
"Monumental Holistic XXII" was recently installed in front of the Covington Center for Visual and Performing Arts.
After a five-year absence, international artist Betty Gold's sculpture "Monumental Holistic XXII" is back on the campus of Radford University. The painted steel work was installed at a ceremony Feb. 2 in front of the Covington Center for Visual and Performing Arts.
The sculpture was donated to the university in 1986 by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Feldman through an arrangement with RU Distinguished Professor Dorothy Gillespie. The piece was originally located between Young and Preston halls but was removed before the renovation of Young Hall began in 2008.
"It is a valuable part of our collection by a prominent American female artist that needed to be brought back to enrich an already vivid environment," said Richard Bay, chair of the RU Department of Art.
Taking into account the structural design of the Covington Center, "Monumental Holistic XXII" offers an ideal marriage of both subject and location, Bay said, adding that the site provides an unobstructed view of the colorful piece, thus allowing it to be appreciated from all angles.
"If we consider the curve of the front of the building at that main entrance and then look upward and see the angles created by the architecture itself, the Gold sculpture only enhances and redefines the Covington Center in a dramatic way," he said. The sculpture also gives definition to the building as the home of the RU Art Museum and Performance Hall, he said.
"To me it's a win-win situation," Bay said.
Gold's abstract works are held in private and public collections across the United States and Europe. The large outdoor sculptures such as the one on display at RU are in permanent installations in a number of countries, including Spain, Japan, Ireland, South Korea, Mexico and the United States.
The title "Monumental Holistic XXII" indicates that the sculpture is the 22nd in a series of related works.