Installation: Petersen's "Panthers" FOUND!

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Date/Time:Saturday, 21 Apr 2012 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Location:Anderson Sculpture Garden, east of Morrill Hall
Cost:Free and open to the public.
URL:http://www.museums.iastate.edu/CPetersen...thers.html
Contact:University Museums
Phone:515-294-3342
Channel:University Museums
Categories:Arts, performances Meetings, receptions Special events
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For 20 years, University Museums searched for a pair of larger-than-life-sized bronze panthers created by Christian Petersen for a Rhode Island estate in the early 1920s. In the summer of 2010, the Panthers were found, and during VEISHEA 2012 they become a permanent part of ISU's campus art collection. Join University Museums as we install this new to the collection sculpture right after the VEISHEA parade concludes. Free tattoos and treats!

These ferocious "Panthers" are a stark departure from Petersen's early die-cut work creating spoons, medallions, and other small-scale designs. It is believed that the "Panthers" were transitional sculptures in Petersen's artistic career - transforming Petersen to a large-scale public art sculptor. As more pieces to the "Panther" puzzle reveal themselves, we find that Petersen created these felines in a era where wildlife was exotic, misunderstood, and revered all at the same time.

Through the generosity of private giving, University Museums now own the "Panthers" and they are making their way to campus from where they were located and acquired from, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT. As the first major public art sculptures created by Christian Petersen, the acquisition of the "Panthers" to the Christian Petersen Art Collection is a major accomplishment in building Christian Petersen's legacies at Iowa State University.