Missouri State University installed a new work of art as part of Sculpture Walk Springfield.
Missouri State’s Public Art Committee recommended the installation of “Baroque Appointments and Machine Parts” by nationally-recognized sculptor David Kimball Anderson.
According to Anderson, “The format (of the sculpture) mimics a museum installation of antiquities as one is likely to encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York or the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco wherein utilitarian antiquities are installed on a plinth in the center of a room.
“In this cluster of offerings however, the objects reference both fine furniture (17th-century Italian and 18th-century French tables, 16th-century British cabinetry along with a typical Japanese base element) and industrial machine parts. The thesis being that both bodies of objects are of equal aesthetic value and significance.”
The committee chose an installation site on the south side of Plaster Student Union for this piece.
“This is a well-traveled part of campus and should be an ideal place to showcase this work of art,” said Vonda Yarberry, art and design department head.
The installation process was jointly sponsored by Missouri State’s College of Arts and Letters, the department of art and design and Sculpture Walk Springfield.
About the artist
David Kimball Anderson, born in Los Angeles in 1946, has been a practicing studio artist since 1969. Anderson attended the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 60s and focused studies with Bruce Nauman and James Reineking. Anderson is the recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowships, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a John Michael Kohler Arts in Industry Residency Grant. He was also the sole recipient of the SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1973.
Anderson began his exhibition career with a one-person show at the Berkeley Art Center in 1972, followed by another solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1973. In 1975, he was included in the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. His first solo exhibition in New York occurred in 1978 with the Braunstein/Thorpe/Kind collective space at 139 Spring Street. Anderson continues to exhibit regularly both nationally and internationally.
About Sculpture Walk Springfield
Sculpture Walk Springfield began in 2016 with the goal of rejuvenating Springfield’s public spaces with displays of high-quality sculpture.
This organization is supported by the Springfield Regional Arts Council, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and the McQueary family. Its multi-year strategy is to place sculptures at distances within sight of each other along a route between downtown Springfield and the Springfield Art Museum.
About the department of art and design
The department of art and design is the largest and one of the most varied publicly funded departments of art and design in Missouri. It is dedicated to providing quality curricular and extra-curricular experiences to develop culturally aware, independently minded and imaginative leaders by educating the next generation of creative thinkers in the visual and liberal arts, and to prepare individuals for careers in art, graphic design, illustration, art education and art history. The department is additionally dedicated to enhancing student and community understanding of and engagement with the visual dimensions of culture, serving the university and broader community through the Student Exhibition Center, the Brick City Gallery, and other public venues and collaborative service activities.
Contact information
For further information, please reach out to:
Vonda Yarberry
Missouri State University, Art & Design Department
417-837-2330
vondayarberry@missouristate.edu