''Wind Gate'', also known as ''Wind Passage'' and ''Windgate'', is an outdoor

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

by American artist

Hilda Grossman Morris Hilda Grossman (Deutsch) Morris (1911–1991) was an artist and sculptor of the Northwest School (art), Northwest School, working mainly in bronze. Biography Grossman was born in New York City in 1911. She studied art at Cooper Union and the Ar ...

, located in front of

Eliot Hall Eliot Hall is a historic building at 7A Eliot Street in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston. It is sometimes referred to as "The Footlight Club," after "America's oldest community theatre," which owns and operates out of the bui ...

on the

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

campus in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, United States. It was created during 1967–1968 and permanently installed on the campus in 1980.

Description

The cast and welded

measures approximately x x , marking Morris' largest sculpture up to the time it was completed. The

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

categorizes the work as abstract,

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

(wind) and

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

(gate). It has been described as "three knife-sail forms that slash through space, radiating out from a central void at roughly equal distances from each other."

History

''Wind Gate'' took two years to create (1967–1968) and was largely completed in Morris' studio in the Mariana foundry in

Pietrasanta, Italy Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...

. The piece was installed permanently in 1980 and dedicated at the October exhibition of the Reed Art Associates, called "Hilda Morris: Wind Gate". On October 11, a ceremony was held on the front lawn of Eliot Hall after a reception in the faculty office building gallery. A "process exhibition" showcasing how Morris created ''Wind Gate'' was displayed from October 9 to November 11. It featured studies in the form of a bronze maquette and a midstage bronze, original plaster sections, drawings, and pictures of the casting and installation processes. Financial contributors included Morris, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Julian Cheatham, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Corbett, Mr. and Mrs. C. Girard Davidson, Mrs. Joan Kaplain Davidson, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Feldenheimer, Mrs. and Mrs. Carl Halvorson, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Hirsch, Mr. and Mrs. John Platt, Mr. and Mrs. David Pugh, Mr. and Mrs.

Howard Vollum Charles Howard Vollum (May 31, 1913 – February 5, 1986) was an American electronics engineer, businessman, and philanthropist in Oregon, United States. He was the co-founder of Tektronix Corporation, and endowed the Vollum Institute. Backg ...

, Mrs. Simeon Reed Winch, the H.A. Andersen Company, Northwest Stone,

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

, and the Wilhelm Trucking Company. According to Scott Sonniksen, then Reed gallery director and associate professor of art, Morris' exhibition marked the last in the faculty office building gallery. He said, "It is quite fitting that she bring to a close the long tradition of fine art exhibitions in the old gallery, because of her long association with the College." The exhibition program was then moved to the college center. The gallery series, of which Morris' exhibition was a part, was supported by the Reed Art Associates, Metropolitan Arts Commission,

Oregon Arts Commission The Oregon Arts Commission is a governor-appointed body of nine commissioners who allocate grants for artists based in the U.S. state of Oregon. It receives the bulk of its funding through the National Endowment for the Arts, the state, and the Or ...

and the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. The sculpture's condition was deemed "treatment needed" by Smithsonian's "

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

" program in 1994. It is administered by Reed College.

References

{{Reed College 1980 establishments in Oregon 1980 sculptures Abstract sculptures in Oregon Allegorical sculptures in Oregon Bronze sculptures in Oregon Outdoor sculptures in Portland, Oregon Reed College campus

Description

History

See also

References