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Campus Sculpture Tour Angelo Granata SOPHOS, 1960
Angelo Granata’s spindly construction Sophos stands west of the main entrance to Burling Library. This statue, thin and angular, rises over viewers and visitors. Made of rejected scraps, it suggests Granata’s desire and ability to recycle. The sculpture began with the main shaft of a rejected piece of steel from a previous sculpture. He chose the components from a pile of scrap metal at a nearby manufacturer, and began to fit them together, bending and welding them where appropriate. For Granata, the sculpture composed itself—he merely aided in its construction. Sophos depicts this sentiment: it shoots unattended from the ground, almost ungainly. Granata chooses to explore nonrepresentational forms in his art. By using simple shapes—such as the overwhelmingly linear components of Sophos—he hopes to produce art that may be enjoyed by the viewer without explanation. Sophos fully demonstrates his interest in simplicity, but its title, an Ancient Greek word meaning wisdom or skill, complicates the simple pleasure Granata intends to invoke. Sophos acts as a marker, noting Burling—and Grinnell College in general—as a communal place for study and knowledge. But as Granata attempts to show in his sculpture, wisdom may also be solitary, simple.
Essay by Meredith Ibey ’00 and Christine Hancock ‘06 |
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| last updated 5/25/06 | Copyright © 2006 Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa 50112 | 641-269-4660 |
