Four Faces, 2013
Michael Stutz
American
Bronze
American
Bronze
Texas Tech University
J. T. and Margaret Talkington Hall
West side of Talkington Hall
These four monumental faces are made of bronze straps using a “weaving” technique, originally developed by Stutz in the 1990s. Each face bears unique physical characteristics, subtly suggesting differences in gender, age, and ethnicity, while also producing a sense of unity derived from shared material, scale, and aesthetic temperament. In short, these sculptures hinge upon a series of dichotomies—individuality and universality, open and closed, traditional and contemporary, monumentality and intimacy—both extremes of which are simultaneously represented.