Running Saluki

Artist / Maker Gwynn Murrill (American, b. 1942)

Date2005

MediumBronze

Dimensions43 x 65 x 24 in. (109.2 x 165.1 x 61 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineArt in State Buildings Project for the Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital.In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU2011.179

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Gwynn Murrill’s four animal installation in the outer entrance of the Hixon-Lied Small Animal Hospital creates a playful atmosphere and reminder of the work done inside the building to care for our domestic companions. The playful Running Saluki is a bronze dog with its ears blowing in the wind. The installation also includes Circle Cat, a small minimalist cat sculpture curled around itself into a circle and a pair of frolicking dogs, the black and white patinated Midnight and Varna. The installation is a good representation of the simplified forms of animals created by Murrill in her body of sculptural work. California-based artist Murrill is well known for her animal sculptures, often created in bronze, marble, or wood. The bronze sculptures are rounded, highlighting the motion of the animals rather than each anatomical element. Murrill’s Bighorn, installed at the entry to the Anderson Sculpture Garden on a pillar of limestone, is another example of her simplified forms. As Murrill states, “I enjoy the challenge of trying and take the form that nature makes so well and to derive my own interpretation of it.”

Locations