Yellow mural takes it to the next level

Author: Ellen Grafton

On Saturday morning, President Ronald D. Liebowitz led the dedication of the new library mural by artist Matt Mullican. The 25- by-75-foot mural, entitled "L'Art d'Ecrire" (The Art of Writing), hangs in the foyer of the library directly across from the upper mezzanine, and has been noted by students mainly for its vibrant yellow hue.

Mullican has been creating art for almost three decades and showing his work since the mid-1970s. His art has been displayed in various major destinations around the world, including Amsterdam, Vienna, Washington D.C., Brussels, Basel, St. Louis, Santa Barbara and New York. Mullican's commissioned work appears in many locations as well, from the University of Houston to the Haags, Gemeententemuseum to the Hague, Netherlands.

His work spans a wide variety of media including sculpture, paint, prints, video, film, computer art and performance. The palette for all Mullican's work consists of only yellow, red, blue and black, to which he occasionally adds green or white.

Preceding the dedication ceremony, Mullican gave a lecture describing his career and the inspirations for his work. In his lecture, Mullican explained how the primary colors of his work respond specifically to different forms of perception in the world.

The yellow hue that Mullican chose for "L'Art d'Ecrire" represents "the framed world." In his lecture, Mullican described this level of perception as "when things go from being objects in the world to being symbols in the world." The examination of symbols and their effect on our perception has been a concept in Mullican's art since the 70s. Much of his earlier work featured commonplace symbols in an effort to explore how we perceive signs and representations in our everyday life.

The symbols used in "L'Art d'Ecrire" are drawn largely from an 18th-century encyclopedia, "Encyclopedie," by Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert. Mixed with the encyclopedia images are symbols created by the artist as well as pictures and drawings related specifically to the Middlebury campus.

The mural's three sections represent three different themes related to knowledge. The left section's theme is the human brain. This section features symbols created by the artist to represent subjectivity, a large picture of a train station roundhouse containing a theater and a distillery - taken from "Encyclopedie" - and medical images relating to the human senses. The roundhouse is a common image in Mullican's work and represents the human brain's capacity for creativity and analytical thought.

The center section combines the themes of language and everyday knowledge. The left half centers on a theme of language and is made up of a series of images relating to language also taken from "Encyclopedie."

The right half contains images related to the geographical location of the mural's audience. The images are of the world, Vermont, Middlebury and even a floor plan of the library.

The right section's theme is the material or natural world and it is composed of natural catalogues taken from the "Encyclopedie" combined with the artist's representation of the water cycle and the elements.

The mural itself is made of 64 panels depicting 55 separate images. Each panel was created using a carved wooden template. A panel of yellow canvas was placed over the template and rubbed with a black oil stick, bringing the image onto the canvas. The canvas was then stretched on an aluminum frame and mounted in its designated spot.

In his dedication speech, Liebowitz said that he felt that the mural reflected the human activity that confirms the importance of our library to campus life. Richard Saunders, the College's museum director, also spoke at the dedication, commenting on the importance of the work to both the space and the overall feel of the library. Mullican was presented with a denim shirt on behalf of Middlebury College and the College's Committee on Art in Public Places, and the artist offered a few words on his work and said how honored he was to have been asked to contribute his work to the College.

Students studying in the library on a Sunday morning offered mixed reviews of Mullican's creation.

"I think the color of it creates a false brightness that doesn't fit with the somber mood of the library," commented Nate Randall '08. He also noted he might like the work if it were in a different space, like a public park. Silke Koenig, an exchange student from Germany, admired how the piece works within the space. "I was studying late at night and could see the whole reflection of it in the windows," she said.

The mural doesn't always elicit such inspired reactions, however. When asked about the mural, Susana Fowler '08 said simply, "I like it."