Twenty-Five Scientists: A Sculptured Gateway, (sculpture).

Twenty-Five Scientists: A Sculptured Gateway, (sculpture).

Greenamyer, George, 1939- , sculptor.

Twenty-Five Scientists: A Sculptured Gateway, (sculpture).

1992. Installed Dec. 21, 1992 - Dec. 24, 1992.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: painted steel; Base: painted steel.

Overall: approx. 14 x 57 x 1 ft.; Base support columns: each approx. H. 14 ft. x Diam. 20 in.

A sculptured gateway consisting of a main arch and horizontal flanking I-beams containing twenty-five tiny figures of scientists dressed in white lab coats. One of the figures that stands to the far left of the sculpture is identified as a portrait of University of Arizona professor Donald Huffman. He is depicted holding the "buckyball" molecule which he discovered. Each of the scientists stands adjacent to or holds a representational object from the sciences. The objects include a stalk of corn, a mushroom, a molecular model, a skeleton, insects, a microscope, a cactus, and a scale. Often the scientific symbol is larger than the scientist. All of the figures are colorfully painted and seem to march across the top of the beams and middle arch. The central arch curves up from the top of the two outside I-beams and all are supported by circular columns, three to a side, positioned beneath the flanking I-beams. The columns, beams, and arch are painted eggplant purple. The beams and arch show the rivets used to hold them together. The two outer columns on each side taper into thin necks resembling gas canisters or flasks used in scientific laboratories. Each of the six columns is bolted to a wider, circular foundation.

Portrait male -- Huffman, Donald -- Full length

Occupation -- Education -- Teacher

Occupation -- Science -- Physicist

Occupation -- Science -- Inventor

Occupation -- Science -- Scientist

Figure -- Fragment -- Skeleton

Object -- Vegetable -- Corn

Object -- Vegetable -- Mushroom

Object -- Other -- Molecule

Animal -- Insect

Object -- Other -- Microscope

Object -- Tool -- Scale

Object -- Foliage -- Cactus

Allegory -- Arts & Sciences -- Science

Outdoor Sculpture -- Arizona -- Tucson

Administered by University of Arizona, Space Management, 800 East University Boulevard, Suite 326, Tucson, Arizona 85721

Located University of Arizona, In front of Chemistry and Biological Sciences Building, Tucson, Arizona

The sculpture cost approximately $40,000, and was funded under the One Percent for Art Program. University of Arizona professor Donald Huffman, who discovered a new molecule known as the "buckyball" molecule, is one of the scientists depicted in the sculpture. Huffman called the artist and told him it was his molecule on the sculpture, prompting the artist to retouch an adjacent figure to look like the professor. IAS files contain a University of Arizona news release dated Dec. 9, 1992; a University of Arizona, Office of Public Information "Newstip" dated Dec. 17, 1992; and articles from the Arizona Daily Star, Dec. 23, 1992, pg. 1B-2B, and the Arizona Daily Wildcat, Jan. 20, 1993, pg. 4.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Arizona, Tucson survey, 1993.

Arizona Daily Star, Dec. 23, 1992, pg. 1B.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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