Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Loop [Vincentian Letter - by Alexander Tylevich]

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Vincentian Letter ... Alexander Tylevich ..
Dedicated in 2000 ... this 21-foot sculpture, in the DePaul University plaza at Jackson Boulevard and State Street ..

The sculptor, lives in St. Paul, Minn. Tylevich, is originally from the Soviet Union. He was the winner of a national competition that DePaul held to find an artist best suited for the work ...


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Click on the image for enlarged view ...

The sculpture refers to the history of DePaul and to the life St. Vincent de Paul, the 17th century priest who dedicated his life to serving the poor and for whom the university is named. The major motif of the sculpture is a pair of bronze elements, which are actually an "envelope" and an "open letter" to be read by all who pass by. The letter side of the sculpture is a bas-relief image of St. Vincent welded onto bronze patina. The envelope portion of the piece tells the history of DePaul through an artistic interpretation of archival documents, which include a heraldic cross and an image of the fleur-de-lis (the symbol of France), the university's Tree of Wisdom logo and a profile image of a young person.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say I think the sculpture is beautiful...I had to do a paper on it and before i didn't really know its significance but now when I look at it I view it in a different light

Unknown said...

My dad is the one who built it. However, it's sad that his name gets no credit for it, the only person who got credit was the designer of it but I believe that my father, Roger Harm, should have gotten recognition for being the one to build it.

don.torgersen@uswide.net said...

I agree with you, Shannon. Creativity is not just the designer, but also the fabricator, the builder, and even the makers of the parts. Don Torgersen.