An Artistic Endeavor
The Grohmann Museum is home to the world's most comprehensive art collection dedicated to the evolution of human work, The Eckhart G. Grohmann Collection "Man at Work," as well as General Studies faculty offices. The museum's steel and glass-domed entrance welcomes visitors to three floors of gallery space where a core collection is displayed as well as special themed exhibitions culled from the collection. The museum also has a spectacular rooftop sculpture garden, auditorium, docent library, store, vending café and workshop.
Floor mosaic is a warm, colorful welcome
Used to express religion, culture or simply as decoration, mosaics have been an impressive element of interior and exterior art since ancient times. For example, a popular mosaic during the Roman era was the "cave canem" (beware of the dog) mosaic found just inside the threshold of villas. Drawing on this tradition, the Grohmann Museum has a magnificent mosaic in its glass entryway, but it signifies a warm welcome rather than a warning. Designed by German artist Hans Dieter Tylle and created by German Gabriel Mayer, the mosaic draws on images from the collection and features five images of men and women at work - a farmer, textile worker, blacksmith, foundry worker and miners - plus some of the implements used in these trades.
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| Artist Hans Dieter Tylle works on the atrium ceiling mural at his studio in Germany |
minds of history
The atrium's ceiling features a 700-square-foot circular mural, The Element of Fire, by German artist Hans Dieter Tylle, depicting great thinkers: Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Johannes Gutenberg and Leonardo da Vinci.
Stained glass reflects
theme of work beautifully
The atrium dome features eight commissioned stained-glass works that replicate paintings from the collection. Designed by German artist Hans Dieter Tylle and created by German Gabriel Mayer, the windows represent men and women in the roles of rolling miller, hay harvester, blacksmiths, carpenter, cooper, quarryman, working at a river valley iron smelter, and building the Tower of Babel.
Roof-top sculpture garden
A dozen large, bronze sculptures - men toiling in the field and foundry, heaving hammers or pinching molten metal with hot tongs - perch on the roofline of the Grohmann Museum. These fellows, each about 9 feet tall and weighing in at a thousand pounds a piece, have a commanding view of a city that was built on the hard work they depict. The commissioned sculptures, replicas of smaller bronzes in the collection, were fabricated in the Philippines through a process called lost-foam casting that transformed them from their original size of about 19-inches to larger-than-life scale. The process involves sculpting the works out of polystyrene and then creating a casting, which employs a series of steps using wax, ceramic and molten bronze. In addition to the 12 large-scale works, another six sculptures are displayed in the 10,000 square-foot garden's interior. The space is perfect place for enjoying sculpture, contemplation or entertaining.
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Grohmann Museum |