Indo Arch - Sacramento, CA
N 38° 34.888 W 121° 30.125
10S E 630471 N 4271397
This sculpture/arch is located near the west entrance to the Westview Shopping Center at 4th and K Streets in Sacramento, CA.
Waymark Code: WMH86M
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/05/2013
Views: 3
It's a sculpture! It's an arch! It's BOTH.
Indo Arch is a sculpture/arch created by Gerald Walburg, a now-retired Art Professor at CSU Sacramento, in 1978. I could find no professional web site for Walburg but was able to locate many web articles of his work. One particular article discusses the history and controversy behind this sculpture (how many times have you read works of art as being controversial?) and an excerpt reads:
PITY THE sculptor who takes on a public commission. Lean to the right (hello, Thomas Fallon), and protesters fill the streets with historical grievances. Lean to the left—vide Quetzacoatl—and another chorus complains loudly. Abstraction doesn't quiet the grousers either. In 1977, Gerald Walburg, a sculptor and teacher at CSU Sacramento, won a competition to create a monumental sculpture for the entrance to the K Street Mall. Although composed of five delicately balanced nonfigural steel elements, the sculpture, known as Indo Arch, ignited the proverbial fire-storm of protest from newspapers, politicians and cranky citizens.
Some critics, exercising their imaginations to the fullest, saw phallic symbolism run amok (to be fair, that's not a completely crazy interpretation). To add further insult, Walburg had to dip into his own pocket to the tune of $7,000 to complete the project. The last laugh took a while, but today the piece is used to promote downtown Sacto to tourists.
I personally can identify with the 'phallic' nature of this piece but I also think it has a definite 1970s schtick in appearance. It reminds me of the shapes that are seen in the music video Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. Watch it. You may agree with me.
I also located another website containing digital archives of Sacramento's history and there are three pictures of this sculpture as it was being installed. What is amazing to notice from the 1980 pictures is how prominent this sculpture used to be compared to the nearby buildings. Now, this sculpture has become almost lost amidst the much larger Westview Shopping Center, nearby trees which have grown and filled much of the open space, and finally, the large Westview Shopping Center clock sculpture that dwarfs this sculpture with its presence.
If you'd like to get another idea of Walburg's work there's a link here that displays another of his sculptures at the San Francisco General Hospital. He also has another steel sculpture located on the campus of San Jose State University. This sculpture is also listed in the Sacramento Arts Commission 'Art In Public Places' collection here.