Landmarks, UT Austin's public art program, is celebrating the unveiling of a new work Thursday by pioneering Black artist Howardena Pindell.
Autobiography: Circles is a multistory composition on the glass facade of the College of Education's George I. Sánchez Building. It depicts a constellation of colorful dots, some of which have arrows or numbers on them. Each contributes to themes of social justice and forward movement — ideas that have been constant in the 83-year-old artist's career.
The genesis of the circle comes from a trip Pindell took through the Deep South with her father as a child. The pair stopped at a root beer stand where she noticed the bottom of her mug had a red dot.
"She asked her father, 'What is this?'" Landmarks Deputy Director Kathleen Stimpert said. "He explained to her that that is how dishes were marked for Black customers in the South during that time. It made such an impact on her that she decided when she became an artist to take ownership of the circle and to turn this really negative experience into something beautiful and powerful."
The dots can be found scattered throughout Pindell's collages, paintings, prints and now on the glass installation. The numbers on the piece serve a twofold purpose, representing her father — who taught math — and the badges that enslaved people were forced to wear. The arrows symbolize forward motion.
"This is what she is calling a legacy project, because she's quite older," Stimpert said. "This is such a monumental work for her because it includes elements of symbols and motifs from across her career all combined into this one project."
The Landmarks program, best known for the canoe sculpture outside the Norman Hackerman Building, maintains a collection of modern and contemporary works installed across the UT Austin campus.
"The wonderful thing about public art is that it is available free of charge, 24/7, and students can engage with it on their own terms," Stimpert said.
Landmarks approached Pindell to create the work five years ago. After the artist completed the composition, the arts program worked with a fabricator in New York to infuse high-resolution scans into glass, a process known as "ceramic frit."
This is Pindell's first public art commission in Texas.
Stimpert says it was an honor to work with her.
"She was one of the founding members of a gallery called A.I.R., and it was all women that were artists working in New York, back in the '70s," Stimpert said. "They became sick of not being represented and not having the same type of exposure and opportunities that male artists did. In art history, it's really considered an important gallery for women [and] Black artists."
She added that the gallery centered female artists and artists of color during a time in which they were marginalized.
Landmarks will celebrate Pindell with curator Valerie Cassel Oliver at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the George I. Sánchez Building.
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