Model for Walking the Landscape 1

Artist / Maker Keith Achepohl (American, 1934 - 2018)

Date1988

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions19 x 54 in. (48.3 x 137.2 cm)

ClassificationsArt on Campus Preparatory Studies and Maquettes

Credit LineCommissioned by the Iowa Art in State Buildings Program for the Black Engineering Project. In the Art on Campus Preparatory Studies and Maquette Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU88.90

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextThe larger version of this mural is permanently installed in the second floor corridor of the Black Engineering Building. Approaching the mural from the east, down a one hundred foot hall, the viewer sees a distant, rugged landscape. The red mountains and blue lake show no evidence of human, animal, or plant habitation. As the viewer walks down the hall, images of a walking man and woman appear in the foreground, as well as a human built, square-cut, stone wall. Upon intimate viewing, one discovers two hands, tenderly touching. People move in and out of natural and built environments. Choosing the natural and built environment to surround us is a conscious human activity. This mural depicts people as a positive, integrative part of the natural environment and people as builders of environments. Viewers are forced to experience the mural from a distance symbolizing geological time, with humans as relatively new comers.

Locations