Monday, July 19, 2021

Fifth Ward Salute

 Robert Boyd

About 10 years ago, I wrote a very brief post about a odd piece of public art in the Fifth Ward. If you read the piece, you will see that I knew nothing about this piece. There was no plaque or sign identifying the sculpture. The only marking on the sculpture was some crudely engraved letters reading "Tanya." 

Today I got an email from an artist named Michael Boot. He told me that when he was an art student at UH, he had assisted in this sculpture's fabrication. The artist is named Tanya Preminger.

 
Tanya Preminger, Salute, bricks, concrete, iron, trees, 400 x 260 x 70 cm., 2002

This photo is from Preminger's website. What I notice immediately are the trees growing out of the fingers. They weren't there in 2011. (I'll have to go check it out again sometime this week to see if the trees have been replaced.)

Preminger is an interesting artist. Born and trained in the Soviet Union, she immigrated to Israel in 1972. Her sculptures have been installed all over the world, with most being in Israel. Some of the work feels kind of jokey (which is how I would characterize Salute.) But she obviously can handle stone sculpture as a plastic medium. Here are a couple of sculptures from her website, which is well-worth exploring. 

 
Tanya Preminger, Stone Mother, granite, 90 x 200 x 90 cm., 1999

Tanya Preminger, Simple Relations, stone, iron 150 x 110 x 70 cm, 1992

Salute is located at the intersection of Lyons and Sydnor.



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