TITLE: Punctuation Spire
ARTIST: William Crutchfield
DATE: 1981
MATERIALS: Wood, steel, aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 28h x 4w feet, 6 feet diameter, 3000 lbs.
TYPE: sculpture
The towering, playful Punctuation Spire (1981) makes full use of the airy space of the Campus Center atrium. Artist William Richard Crutchfield (1932-2015) originally created the 28-foot sculpture for a shopping center in California. It is one in a series of towers that offer tribute to “the symbols of our modern written language.” (The others feature the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 through 9, and the word “wish.”)
Like the monolithic obelisks of ancient times, Punctuation Spire demonstrates the power of art in place-making. Donated to the Herron School of Art and Design, it installed in the Campus Center in 2010.
Crutchfield was an internationally exhibited artist and Indianapolis native best known for his painting and printmaking. He received his B.F.A. from Herron in 1956.
To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation_Spire_(Crutchfield),
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.”