Indoor Art Around Columbia

Many Columbians are familiar with the well-known sculptures located outdoors on Morningside campus, such as Daniel Chester French’s Alma Mater and The Thinker (Le Penseur) by Auguste Rodin. Less known are the works of art that are somewhat hidden from view since they are found indoors.

So, students, when you get to Morningside campus, enter any building, and you are likely to come face to face with a painting, sculpture, or other art object. Here are a few prominent pieces that are in the collection of Art Properties.

Videbimus Lumen by Eugene Francis Savage

This large 1934 mural by Eugene Francis Savage (1883-1978) depicts Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and is installed on the south wall near the main entrance of Butler Library. Visitors will see the colorful, imposing artwork as soon as they enter the building. Savage had a long, distinguished career as an artist. His training in Early Renaissance techniques, as well as the work of contemporary artists like Thomas Hart Benton, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco, all influenced his art, especially his public murals. He won the Rome Prize in 1915, which enabled him to study at the American Academy in Rome. Later, he taught at Yale University for 28 years.

The Butler mural takes its name from Columbia’s motto, “In lumine tuo videbimus lumen,” which translates as, “In thy light, we shall see light.” The book, A Guide to Columbia University With Some Account of Its History and Traditions (1937), says of the mural: “A figure of Athene in white is depicted warding off two devils, symbolic of malevolent influence and disorder. The flying figures represent divinity, the sciences, and the arts. Below is a group symbolic of modern occupations: agriculture, industry, and intellectual endeavor. Behind the figure of Athene is the skyline of lower Manhattan.”

Bust of Athena by Leonidas Drosis

This neoclassical marble bust of the ancient Greek goddess Athena holds a prominent place atop a stand in the vestibule of Low Memorial Library. Little is known about the sculpture, other than that it was created by a Greek artist, Leonidas Drosis (1834 or 1836-1882), at some point in the 19^th century. He was a sculpture professor at the Athens Polytechnic; according to Roberto Ferrari, curator of Art Properties, and a lecturer in Art History and Archaeology, the Athena bust fits in with Drosis’s entire oeuvre, which reasserted ancient Greek classicism under a new modern Greek identity. The work was exhibited at the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and donated to Columbia in 1907 by Dr. J. Ackerman Coles.

Moses by William Zorach

This granite bust of Moses, placed in the entrance of Earl Hall, was created in 1953 by the Lithuanian-born, American artist William Zorach (1889-1966), and donated to the University in 1956 by Ermand G. Erpf. Zorach was one of the earliest American artists to embrace Cubism. In the 1920s, he gave up painting and turned to sculpture exclusively. Other works by Zorach are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Two Stained Glass Windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany

These larger-than-life windows by the American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) depict Sophocles and Vergil, and are located across from each other in the lobby of Hamilton Hall. Today the name Tiffany evokes the luxury jewelry and design store headquartered on Fifth Avenue, but before he became the first design director of the family firm founded by his father, Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels, and metalwork.

The Sophocles window dates to around 1890, and the Vergil one was created in the early 1900s. Together, they illustrate an important change in the American arts and crafts movement—the transition from painting images on glass to achieving a sculptural depth through the use of colored glass.