Les Danseuses
By William Conrad Severson and Saunders Schultz
Category: Sculpture
About
Les Danseuses is a highly abstracted sculpture that resembles tall, sinewy blades of grass. The polished stainless steel columns become a graceful solar ballet when the sun’s rays interact with photo-voltatic cells located on nearby rooftops, causing the sculpture to gracefully bend, twist and rotate.
Dimensions: 18′ x 20′ x 10′
Year Completed: 1983
Material: Stainless steel
Owner: Mercantile Bank
Donor: Mercantile Bank collection
About the artist:
William Conrad Severson and Saunders Schultz
William Conrad Severson was an internationally acclaimed artist who sculpted works for corporate, institutional, liturgical and private commissions. His artwork can be seen in the US, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Moscow. He was a co-founder and former president of the St. Louis Sculptors Gallery, and the first artist-in-residence at the Missouri Council of the Arts program in Chillicothe, Missouri.
Saunders Schultz received his BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1950 and two years later received an MFA from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is an internationally acclaimed artist who focuses on making sculpture to fit its particular environment. Often creating monumental works that are larger-than-life, Schultz stresses the importance of making his work aesthetically pleasing. His work is characterized by sharp angles and shiny forms, due to the nature of the stainless steel with which he works.