Mayor Woodford has declared September 12-18 to be Arts In Education Week in Appleton, and has called “on all City residents to observe the week with appropriate activities.” I thought an appropriate activity to show appreciation for art would be to spend the week highlighting some of the art located around town.
Today’s highlighted artwork is “Aerial Landscape” by Rolf Westphal. This big yellow metal sculpture is located on the west side of the Wriston Art Center. It was originally erected in 1988, then taken down in 2010, restored, and re-erected in 2014.
In 2015 he gave a speech on his inspiration for the sculpture, and you can read an article in the Lawrentian about that here: http://www.lawrentian.com/archives/1005837. Per that article, moments in his life that inspired this sculpture included, “memories of sailing in the North Sea, learning of the destruction of war from a Holocaust survivor, making nests in the woods for eggs from the Easter Bunny, watching his parents unload giraffes off of ships from Africa and being taken under the wing of one child after being made fun of for his German origins by another.”
The sculpture consists of two parts—the big yellow arcs that are the most obvious part of the artwork and then several bollards topped with dark glass enclosing small landscapes.
Sometimes modern artists add their own contemporary flare to this sculpture.
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