MS-288: Creation and Preservation of Martin Puryear’s Sentinel

This collection includes records from Gettysburg College’s application process to the NEA, the selection process of the artist, images from the installation process of Sentinel, correspondence and an interview with Martin Puryear, newspaper cutouts of Sentinel’s reception. As well as records from Molly Hutton’s efforts to seek awareness and funding for the preservation and conservation of Sentinel in the early 2000s. Records from the application for an assessment award under Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!), and a manuscript for a story on Sentinel to be featured in the GETTYSBURG alumni magazine are also included. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discover tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their contnet. More informaiton about our collections can be found on our website https://www.gettysburg.edu/special-collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1223/thumbnail.jp

Martin Puryear: 40 Years Since Sentinel

Artist Martin Puryear’s commitment to seeing objects as connected to history and culture resonates with a moment when Gettysburg College reflected on the significance of its own historical place and time. As the College approached the sesquicentennial anniversary of its founding, it decided to mark the occasion not with a ball or parade, but with “an intelligent artifact,” a permanent marker that both recognizes its maker and offers its own history. In 1980, Associate Dean of the College Robert Nordvall suggested to President Charles Glassick that they ought to commission a monumental sculpture on campus. Glassick then created the Ad Hoc Sculpture Committee and appointed Nordvall, who became chairman of the committee, Biology Professor A. Ralph Cavaliere, Art Professor and sculptor Alan Paulson, Trustee Samuel A. Schreckengaust, and, at Professor Paulson’s recommendation, student Nicholas Micros, class of 1982. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1037/thumbnail.jp

Luxurious Surfaces: Chinese Decorative Arts from the 15th to the Early 20th Century

Luxurious Surfaces: Chinese Decorative Arts from the Fifteenth to the Early Twentieth Century is a highly anticipated exhibition that highlights student learning in the art history program. The curators, William Caterham ’20, Ashley Jeffords ’20, Merlyn Maldonado Lopez ’22, Sarah Paul ’22, James Raphaelson ’21, Megan Reimer ’22, Shannon Zeltmann ’21 and Tianrun Zhao ’20, are students enrolled in the Art History Method class in Fall 2019. The exhibition examines the quintessential characteristics and the meaning of Chinese decorative arts embedded in the luxurious surfaces of sixteen carefully selected works from Gettysburg College’s Asian Art Collection.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1032/thumbnail.jp