Celebrating the Class of 2020 with Highlights from our Student Guides

Henry Moore, Reclining Figure (Working Model for Lincoln Center Sculpture)

Situated right outside of the List Center, this is one of my favorite stops along the tour route. Henry Moore cast this bronze figure as a model for a larger piece later installed at the Lincoln Center. Much of Moore’s work revolved around the reclining figure motif: he was inspired by massive basalt carvings of pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican chacmool figures.

Moore extended these powerful figures, often allowing negative space to further fragment and abstract the human form. Moore explored using natural forms, both as inspiration for his pieces and as physical tools he would cast or press into the smaller models. Moore’s use of bones, shells, wood, and stones gave pieces like Reclining Figure uniquely natural and rough textures and grounded these humanistic pieces within the natural world. Because Moore often molded small-scale models by hand before casting the final larger pieces, his sculptures hold tension between the massive and the intimate.

Sol LeWitt, Bars of Color within Squares

As an architecture and design major at MIT, Sol LeWitt’s Bars of Color within Squares (2007) is one of my favorite pieces to show on the guided List Center tours. Sol LeWitt was the first artist I learned about freshman year, during the introductory studio course. The first project we were given was based on the principles of Sol LeWitt, where we came up with a “code” to give to other students who would then create the art piece described through the instructions. It was so cool to see Bars of Color in person, since I could make a connection between what I had learned in class and an art piece that I could visit every day if I wanted.

Commissioned through MIT’s Percent-for-Art program in 2007, Bars of Color within Squares is a public work by Sol LeWitt in the U-shaped atrium of Building 6C. As one of his last pieces of art, Bars of Color lands on the building scale, covering around 5,500 square feet of floor space. 18-foot squares of vibrant, geometric terrazzo were poured in place and are visible from various vantage points in the building. Bars of Color holds even more significance to me since it is one of my go-to architectural gems on campus. Its scale is so abnormal compared to typical works you would find in a museum, so visitors are often surprised and intrigued to walk into a room where the entire space is artwork. The space had previously been a courtyard, which was then closed off for the physics building extension. The walls of the space are constructed with brick, and natural light flows in easily, producing the facade of an outdoor area. Standing on the ground floor, you feel miniscule compared to the terrazzo tiles and don’t really know what to make of the large swaths of color. However, when you take the elevator or stairs up to the 3rd floor, the art comes alive and, all of a sudden, 3D shapes start popping out of the floor. It is a great reminder of how scale and perspective can alter our understandings of the built environment.

Antony Gormley, Chord

One of my favorite tour stops is Chord (2015), by Antony Gormley. It is a stainless-steel sculpture comprising 33 polyhedra, naturally-occurring forms that have applications in various fields of science and engineering. It is fitting that it stands at the intersection of the buildings housing the mathematics, chemistry, and humanities departments, as the sculpture combines art and design with modern engineering and construction techniques. It is located in a high-traffic area on campus, and I myself have walked through the hallways that surround it many times on my way to classes. It can be easy to overlook works of public art as we hurry around campus, but Chord is one of those pieces that remind us that the art is there.