Entrance to The Leonardo - Relief Art Sculptures on Waymarking.com

The sculptured frieze was created by Miss Jo Roper of Montezuma NM. The artwork was cast by Otto Buehner Co.

Miss Roper was commissioned by the library committee in 1962 to create the abstract sculpture, but rather than just create a wall of free form abstractness, Miss Roper felt the frieze should say something about what was inside the building. It should suggest the character of the building. She designed a series of semi abstract figures growing from shallow relief to full and more recognizable relief on the other. "The figures represent all people. People who write and read books, and people whom books are written about. The figures don't represent any one man, but all men. Everyone who looks at them will give each a different individual identity."

Construction:
Miss Jo Roper created a small scale model of the sculpture. Once this was approved by the library board, the model was photographed and a negative flashed on a wall full scale. The figures were traced and the whole pattern marked off in one foot square sections.

Using a garage at the Buehner plant, two tables were covered with a layer of plaster of paris. Styrofoam pads were used in areas which had to be built up for the relief figures. Miss Roper completed the full scale positive molds in about four weeks. Negative molds where produced from the master mold in sections ranging from 6-8 ft wide to facilitate pouring and handling. Ornamental concrete was poured into the molds for the final product which matches exactly the precast concrete panels which face the rest of the building. Miss Roper and Mr. Buehner were then credited with the introduction of the use of massive sculptured walls in building construction in Utah and hoped to collaborate in other projects.

Text Source: Library Special Collections - Historic Library Scrapbooks - Article by Larry D. Finnegan, 1964

Your impression of the sculpture?: Date Sculpture was opened for vewing?: 08/10/1964 Where is this sculpture?: 209 E 500 S Salt Lake City, UT United States 84101 Sculptors Name: Jo Roper Website for sculpture?: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
1. Provide a tasteful picture of the sculpture, with another point of view from the original(no pictures of GPSr or yourself).

2. Provide your thoughts on the sculpture and your impression of it.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   09/05/2019 gemeloj visited it 04/10/2012 Chasing Blue Sky visited it

View all visits/logs