Petersen’s last major sculpture for Iowa State was also his longest in realization and most frustrating. Since the 1930s, he had dreamed of establishing an elaborate sculptural entrance to the university, and for years he devised images to symbolize the mission of higher education at Iowa State and the life to be found there. He was not able to persuade the college to support him in his goals, but at last he was given permission to move forward with a project involving three massive figures that would represent the lives and concerns of college students. He had hoped to place them in a prominent spot where they could be easily seen and provide an artistic introduction to the campus, but with post-war expansion and the re-orientation of the school, Petersen’s sculptures had to wait nearly a decade in his studio before they were installed. As his retirement passed, and the sculptures were still not placed, Petersen, who rarely made public comments of any kind, much less critical ones, began to express some impatience with the university. He found sympathy from the student newspaper which carried several stories on the situation, encouraging the administration to complete the project, and even supporting a fundraiser for the installation cost. Shortly before his death in 1961, Petersen approved its current location at the Oak-Elm dormitory complex.
Although it is not as extensive as he would have liked, or installed according to his first preference, it is an extremely affecting work whose intimate nature seems well suited to its placement. The studies show how attentive Petersen was to scale, materials, position and construction. Three distinctive limestone sculptures punctuate a long brick wall with a concrete top. The installation begins with a group of three women who congregate for study or discussion. They are followed by a couple comprised of a young man who reads from a book as a young woman leans in to share the book or perhaps to distract him. This central group is one of the most complex Petersen created, both symbolically and compositionally; to comprehend both figures entirely, one must view them from both the front and the back of the wall. The final figure is a lone female who faces away from the campus and is absorbed not in a conversation with others, but with herself.
The women’s dorm area was not an area of campus I knew as a kid. My neighbor Dan and I had Des Moines Register morning newspaper routes. We sometimes substituted for each other when someone was sick or on vacation. Dan had all of the women’s dorm area to deliver papers. The first time I subbed for him I was pushing my bike loaded with papers up the hill by Oak and Elm dorms in the pre-dawn. That is when I first encountered Conversations. It was almost eerie in the pre-dawn light to see these lifelike sculptures of students in conversation or contemplating life while the whole area was quiet and students were likely asleep.
-Jerome Thompson
His Hands
(in memory of the sculptor and teacher Christian Petersen
artist-in-residence, Iowa State University 1934 to 1961)
How could something
so big and strong
make something
so fine and tender?
With a simple
twist of a wrist
the tip of his thumb
opened a young girl’s eyes,
brought life to dead limbs,
put music in the air
around the hem
of a prancing dancer.
No one knew
how he did it
although they all
watched closely,
they all let him
touch calmly what their
young tentative hands were
slowly bringing into existence,
were trying to bring into existence,
or could not will to life.
Everyone began
with the same tools
the same wet
lump of soil,
the same arms
and heart and brain,
the same red dawn
calling to them
from the horizon,
but few felt loveliness
before it blossomed,
few could put their finger
on what could not be felt
until his warm sure hands
touched theirs
numb and shivering
in the untempered morning.
Study for Conversations: Man and Woman, 1946-1947
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Paper, brown pencil
Purchased by University Museums from Mary Petersen. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM92.55
Study for Conversations: Preliminary Figure Studies, 1946-1947
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Paper, black graphite or conte
Purchased by University Museums from Mary Petersen. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM92.70
Study for Conversations: Figure Study, 1946-1947
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Paper, black graphite or conte
Purchased by University Museums from Mary Petersen with the Christian Petersen Memorial Fund. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM92.348
Study for Conversations: Two Men, 1946-1947
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Paper, black graphite or conte
Purchased by University Museums from Mary Petersen. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM92.69
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