Skip to main contentDescription
Kqrefe-Aekyad
Artist
Douglas Abdell
(United States, born 1947)
DateJanuary 27, 1980
MediumWelded steel
DimensionsH x W x D: 88 1/2 x 48 1/2 x 19 in. (224.8 x 123.2 x 48.3 cm)
Object TypeSculptures
Credit LineKSU, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, gift of the Price R. & Flora A. Reid Foundation, Wichita, KS
Object number1988.8
On View
On view• The forms of Abdell’s sculptures are created through the artist’s interpretation of the ancient alphabets of the Fertile Crescent. The language of the titles is created based on his research of these languages with an emphasis on the Phoenician civilization.
• The Aekyad phase of Abdell’s work is his third stage in development that he entered in 1977. His sculptures started to take on more simplified forms but retained his conceptual ideas derived from ancient Near Eastern languages.
• The sculptures were conserved in the fall of 2018 when the museum decided to move them to its outdoor Stolzer Gallery to highlight them as a part of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The steel was sandblasted and repainted according to the artist’s instructions.
• The sculptures’ original location on the Kansas State University campus was in the lawn between the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Thompson, and McCain Auditorium where it was placed in 1988.
• The Aekyad phase of Abdell’s work is his third stage in development that he entered in 1977. His sculptures started to take on more simplified forms but retained his conceptual ideas derived from ancient Near Eastern languages.
• The sculptures were conserved in the fall of 2018 when the museum decided to move them to its outdoor Stolzer Gallery to highlight them as a part of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The steel was sandblasted and repainted according to the artist’s instructions.
• The sculptures’ original location on the Kansas State University campus was in the lawn between the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Thompson, and McCain Auditorium where it was placed in 1988.