Rainbow: A study in bronze

There are no photos of me, as a child, standing next to a piece of art.

The Omaha that I grew up with didn't have much public art. It wasn't a part of the scenery — or the fabric of living here.

How that has changed.

In the last 10 years, our city has been in bloom — with new pieces popping up and taking over public spaces all over town.

We're even developing our own public art personality. Complex. Open-minded, but still very traditional. And very, very . . . bronze.

Start thinking about the public art you interact with the most. The art you remember. The pieces that just say "Omaha" to you.

The buffalo, the Boys Town statue, the men with hammers down by the river. The children with umbrellas at 82nd and Dodge. "The Road to Omaha" . . .

Bronzes. All traditional bronzes.

There are other types of public art here — other styles, other media — but the bronzes really set the tone. Particularly downtown.

Brooks Joyner thinks this is wonderful. "They bring a narrative," he said. They help us tell our story.

Joyner was director of the Joslyn Art Museum when many of the new bronzes were installed — and he oversaw the development of the Joslyn Sculpture Garden.

The traditional bronzes make especially good public art, he said, because people can relate to them.

"The vast majority of people may never come into museums." But they are still inspired by art. "They're a lot more captivated by things they can understand, that they can interpret — that they can have some report with."

That's one of the reasons artist Matthew Placzek chooses to work in traditional bronzes. Because they connect with people.

Though you may not know Placzek's name, you're definitely familiar with his work. He's the man behind "Illumina" — also known as "the one with the mime" — in front of CenturyLink Center Omaha and the new "Imagine" installation at Children's Hospital & Medical Center at 82nd and Dodge Streets. (The one with the umbrellas.)

And he works right here in Omaha.

Many of Omaha's most iconic bronzes were created by one of three local artists: Placzek, John Lajba or Littleton Alston.

Placzek, who works in other styles and media as well, has noticed that people are physically drawn to his bronze figures in a way they aren't drawn to other work. They want to touch them, climb on them — have their photo taken while giving the sculptures bunny ears.

"People can always relate to the human form," he said.

That instant connection is a vital part of his public projects. When he was working on "Imagine," for example, he thought about how people would be experiencing the piece. From inside the hospital. From Dodge Street. From the red light.

"You only have a minute . . ." Placzek said. "When someone sees your work, you need an immediate response."

The response seems to be there, even when the figures aren't human.

Think of "Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness Park" around the First National Bank Building downtown. You can feel the energy of the charging buffalo and the scattering geese. When the weather is good, the fountain is a magnet for people on their lunch break or walking downtown.

Bronze was a natural choice for the bank's five-block sculpture parks, said First National Chairman Bruce Lauritzen. It suits the historic subject matter, he said, and "most of today's sculptors who do Western art work in bronze."

But everything that makes traditional bronzes popular — that they're accessible, that they feel historic — can be irritating to people who want Omaha to have a more cutting-edge art scene.

Larry Ferguson, chairman of the Omaha Public Art Commission, isn't shy about his bronze disdain.

Ferguson looks at all the recent bronze projects and imagines what else could have been purchased with that money.

Modern pieces, abstract pieces.

"You could have had someone with a total international reputation," Ferguson said. "It could have put Omaha on the (art world) map."

Omaha is a wonderful place to live, he said, a truly modern city. Yet, "We're stuck with bronzes that could have been done 100 years ago."

Ferguson isn't the only person from the arts community who shared this feeling with me, though he was the only one who was willing to be quoted.

They feel that Council Bluffs is getting public art more right, with cutting-edge pieces such as "Molecule Man" at the Mid-America Center and the spiky "Odyssey" on the 24th Street Bridge.

Omaha's traditional bronzes, Ferguson said, "are playing to old-school mentalities."

He says that like it's a bad thing . . .

Maybe it is.

But if you've ever walked along the riverfront at night and watched the kids climbing on the sculptures while their parents take photos, it's hard to be mad at the bronzes.

They're already a part of us. They may be conservative and traditional, but, by and large, so are we.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1149, [email protected]

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