Emil Lukas
United States, born 1964
Time Line under Pear Tree, 1994-96
Concrete, shells, stones, leaves, wood, seeds, pigment, earth, insects and oil paint in cast plaster
42 ft. (variable) x 12 ½ in. diameter
Weatherspoon Art Museum. Museum purchase with funds from the Benefactors Fund, 2000

In this work, Lukas literally recorded the passage of time. Time Line under Pear Tree is comprised of organic and inorganic material that were collected over a period of eighteen months. The objects were cast into concrete and plaster via a circular hole dug in the ground under a pear tree in the artist's backyard. As a pseudo-fossilized record of a specific site, the work becomes a meditation on the fragility and endurance of nature.

© Emil Lukas

Emil Lukas
United States, born 1964
December Lake, 1992
Plaster, hydrocal, paper, glassine, graphite, thread, ink, oil, lacquer, copper and organic materials
3 x 8 ¾ x 14 in.
Weatherspoon Art Museum. Gift of Kourosh Larizadeh, Los Angeles, 2003


Emil Lukas makes evident every process and part that goes into his work. By-products of his studio practice and the natural environment become both source material for, and subjects of, works that are both painting and sculpture. Works, like December Lake and Time Line under Pear Tree, are histories of their own inspiration and construction. Wide-ranging materials, including organic residue, string, oil, and paint, are part of the archeology of each piece and the vocabulary of them all.

© Emil Lukas

Richard Mosse
Ireland, born 1980
Taking Tiger Mountain, 2011
Digital c-print
40 x 50 in.
Weatherspoon Art Museum. Museum purchase with funds from the Joseph R. Morton Acquisition Endowment, the Warren Brandt Acquisition Endowment and by exchange, 2012


This photograph of a rolling landscape belongs to a series of images the artist took during trips to the Eastern Congo. Its pink coloration results from the use of a discontinued military surveillance technology, a type of color infrared film called Kodak Aerochrome. Originally developed in the 1940s for camouflage detection, this aerial reconnaissance film registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, rendering the green landscape in vivid hues of pink, lavender, and crimson. Seemingly peaceful, if surreal, the site is associated with violence and the displacement of nearly 5,000 people, and thus represents the severe social and political dynamics within which the residents of the Eastern Congo live.

© Richard Mosse

Henry Pearson
United States, 1914-2006
Untitled, c. 1962
Ink on paper mounted on globe
12 in. diameter
Weatherspoon Art Museum. Gift of Terry and Ed Duffy, 2001 

Loosely affiliated with the Op Art movement, Pearson was known for his abstract, multi-colored globes and for paintings generated by chance, modeled on West African sculpture, or based on the map work he did while in the army. In this work Pearson seemed to combine his interest in spherical forms with patterns that suggest topographical maps.

© Estate of Henry Pearson

Herman Cherry
United States, 1909-1992
#68, from the series Metaphorical River, 1969
Oil on paper
24 x 30 in.
Weatherspoon Art Museum. Museum purchase with funds from the Benefactors Fund, 1973

Cherry is best known for his Abstract Expressionist paintings that explore color fields and geometric forms. Although the artist’s intent for this painting is not known, the fact that rivers are frequently used as metaphors for life suggests the passage of time and meandering paths.

© Estate of Herman Cherry

Pat Adams
United States, born 1928
Dotted Ribbon, 1967
Gouache on paper
5 ⅜ x 7 in.
Weatherspoon Art Museum. Museum purchase with funds from the Benefactors Fund, 1973


Using the simplest of artistic tools, Adams suggests both place and process in this work. The dotted ribbon dominates the top portion of the painting, suggesting an undulating snake or worm viewed from above or the peaks of a mountain range seen from a distance.

© Pat Adams. Courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York

Time, Space, Place, Trace, Weatherspoon Art Museum, installation photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications, 2020.

Time, Space, Place, Trace, Weatherspoon Art Museum, installation photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications, 2020.

Time, Space, Place, Trace, Weatherspoon Art Museum, installation photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications, 2020.

Time, Space, Place, Trace, Weatherspoon Art Museum, installation photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications, 2020.

Time, Space, Place, Trace, Weatherspoon Art Museum, installation photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications, 2020.