TITLE: Eve
ARTIST: Robert William Davidson
DATE: 1931
MATERIALS: bronze
DIMENSIONS: Sculpture: approx. H. 5 ft. x Diam. 18 in.; Base: approx. 59 x 30 x 30 in.; Basin: approx. Diam. 130 in.
TYPE: sculpture
Robert William Davidson’s Eve was commissioned by the Indiana University Alumni Nurses Association in 1931 to commemorate an IU School of Nursing residence.
IU School of Nursing students nicknamed the fountain-based sculpture“Flo” after Florence Nightingale, the great social reformer, statistician, and founder of modern nursing.
Renaming the sculpture reminds us how local communities can claim and reimagine public art. How might calling this figure “Eve” or “Flo” change the way you experience it?
Davidson (1904-1982) was an Indianapolis native who studied sculpture at the Herron Art Institute, before leaving for Chicago, New York, and then Germany. He was a professor of art at Skidmore College in Upstate New York for 38 years.
To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_(sculpture),
which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI
Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A
Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”