Location: Lobby, Building 38A
Artist: Alfred Julio Jensen (1903-1981)
Title: Changes and Communications

Begun one year before the dedication of the Lister Hill Center building (May 1980), this mural was created specifically for the Library. It is composed of 16 panels of Belgium linen bolted together and is 25 feet high by 15 feet wide. Its theme is Art and Science.

The rectangular pattern was used to relate to the Egyptian and Greek cultures which Mr. Jensen saw as "cultures of rectangles." Since numbers play a part in many religions of the world and are symbolic, he used the archaic Chinese numbering system to represent the male/female duality of the world. Each panel's numbers total either 64 (male) or 66 (female). Numbers tally in all directions to either of these combinations, thus creating a "crosscutting which spirals and corresponds to the DNA structures of life." As a result, the painting "contains the material and the feeling, the mood, the cornerstones of building blocks of the universe."

Mr. Jensen's works are owned by a number of museums in this country, such as the Guggenheim, Rose, and Carnegie Institute. He is also represented in collections in Europe and Japan.

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Last Reviewed: February 27, 2012