Art in public places: "Children of Abraham" sculpture in the courtyard of the Mosse Humanities Building on the UW-Madison campus

It's been there for less than a year, but in the not too distant future, Phillip Ratner's sculpture, "Children of Abraham," will have to find a new home because its "permanent home" is in the courtyard of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building, one several 1960s Modernist buildings slated for destruction as part of the University of Wisconsin Madison Campus Master Plan.

Unless you've had a class in Humanities, attended a concert at Mills Hall, or taken the shortcut from the A.W. Peterson Building on Murray Street to the Humanities Building parking spaces on North Park Street, you many not even know there's a lovely courtyard hidden behind Humanities' Brutalist façade.

"Children of Abraham" sculpture reflected in the courtyard windows of the Mosse Humanities Building

Forty years ago, director Stuart Gordon discovered the courtyard and decided it was a perfect place to stage a play. The play was "Vis," an ingenuous, freely adapted version of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus," and among its cast members was Andre De Shields in his first Madison theater role. In his July 9, 1968, review of "Vis," the Daily Cardinal's Eric Mankin captured some of the essence of De Shields' talent when he wrote, "I was particularly impressed by Andre De Shields, equipped with the laughter of a jackal and the sleekness of a panther."

Forty years later, De Shields is scheduled to return to Madison some time during the 2008-2009 academic year to direct a University Theatre production of "Hair" – the show in which he bared all long before he was nominated for a Tony Award for "The Full Monty."

But I digress, since the subject of this post is public sculpture, not theater – or even architecture.

"Children of Abraham" is a gift to the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions (LISAR) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, donated by the Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum in Bethesda, Maryland to honor LISAR benefactors Sheldon and Marianne Lubar. LISAR is a unit of the College of Letters & Science at the UW-Madison and is currently housed in the Humanities Building. Opened in 2005, the Institute's mission is "to create better understanding of the Abrahamic traditions and interrelationships by encouraging ongoing discussion of these traditions among scholars, members of these traditions, and the general public."

"Abrahamic" refers to the paramount place that Abraham holds in Judasim, Chirstianity, and Islam, all of which acknowledge Abraham as an ancestor. Ratner's sculpture features renderings of "Abraham" in the scriptural languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic, as well as Latin and is meant to evoke "the historic, theological, and even consanguineous connections between Jews, Christians, and Muslims."

Rear view of "Children of Abraham" showing additional scriptural languages

The Ratner Museum, which donated the sculpture, was established "to foster love of the Bible through the graphic arts."

I haven't seen a demolition date for the Humanities Building yet, but as the photo below shows, the nearby A.W. Peterson Building will soon be gone, so the end is probably near for Humanities, too.

Demolition of the A.W. Peterson Building in progress (photograph taken June 21, 2008)

If you'd like to see "Children of Abraham" in its "permanent home," I'd advise you plan your visit for sooner rather than later. In the summer months, the courtyard is a pleasant place to relax with a good book or enjoy your lunch. Sometimes, in addition to exploring all the aspects of "Children of Abraham," you'll also be able to enjoy the sounds created by music student practicing her instrument.

Note: For additional scenes of the Mosse Humanities Building courtyard (taken before "Children of Abraham" was installed, please visit my Flickr account to see some of my photos of the 2006 Summer Band Concert, performed there on July 13, 2006.