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Posted on Fri, Sep 9, 2011 : 5 p.m.

Gerome Kamrowski artwork installed in new atrium at Ann Arbor municipal complex

By AnnArbor.com Staff

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"Twilight Shadows" has a new home.

The nine-panel mosaic mural by Gerome Kamrowski used to hang at the outside entrance to the City of Ann Arbor's Larcom Municipal Building at Fifth Avenue and Huron Street. But construction of the new police-courts building forced its relocation.

Under the auspices of the city's Public Art Commission, the work was reinstalled today in the four-story atrium between the two buildings.

Aaron Seagraves, the city's public-art administrator, said that the mural was acquired for the city by a citizens group in 1992.

"The new installation will give these pieces much better lighting and a remarkable setting for the community to enjoy for the next 50 years," Seagraves wrote in an email.

A task force of the commission, chaired by Margaret Parker, selected the atrium site after a previous plan for a work by Herbert Dreiseitl—who is doing the large water sculpture outside the new building—fell through. Initially, it seemed the atrium would be too large for the mural, but it turned out to be perfect, Parker said.

The installation was handled by EJH Construction and Project Manager John Tucker, who is Kamrowski's stepson. Parker said he has handled a number of Kamrowski installations.

Kamrowski first became nationally known when he lived in New York and worked as part of the abstract expressionist movement. He moved to Ann Arbor in 1948 to teach at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design, from which he retired in 1982. He died in 2004 in Ann Arbor.

Comments

Kathy and Ellen

Sat, Dec 10, 2011 : 7:35 p.m.

We are delighted to see this coverage of our Uncle's work! Gerome cared so much for the Ann Arbor community and the University of Michigan. It is wonderful that you restored this mural to the atrium and continue to appreciate his art. Thanks, Margaret and members of the task force, for making this possible.

Kafkaland

Sat, Sep 10, 2011 : 6 p.m.

No kvetching on this thread yet? I'm surprised that no one has suggested here that the mural should have been sold to pay for police and fire services, or gound into building material for the Stadium Bridge, or must be denounced as a monument to the mayor or socialism in general.

BHarding

Sat, Sep 10, 2011 : 12:41 p.m.

Good to know!

dawnsong

Sat, Sep 10, 2011 : 11:58 a.m.

It looks really nice in the new setting!

Tom Morson

Sat, Sep 10, 2011 : 11:09 a.m.

I always wondered what happened to that mural, having seen pictures of it and am glad to know that it is being given yet another life in a setting simpatico with the work.

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