Dedicated 1969
The Hillis Arnold sculpture, "New Heritage," has stood as a totemic sentinel of contemporary art on the grounds of Lewis and Clark Community College for more than 40 years.
Isolated for the longest time as the first and only public work of art on campus until the early 1980s, "New Heritage" was, however, a harbinger of things to come. Now joined by a growing number of major works, Hillis Arnold’s sculpture commands a place of honor in front of the Hatheway Cultural Center.
Arnold was a man ahead of his time. He was working with Corten Steel at a time when few artists were familiar with the process of fabricating artwork in this new material. The first architectural use of corten steel was by architect Eero Saarinen at the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, IL, only five years earlier. Even more remarkable was the size of "New Heritage." At 18 feet tall, Arnold had created a monumental sculpture on a scale few artists were capable of attempting in 1969.
Arnold was a remarkable person. He lost his hearing at the age of six months due to spinal meningitis. Yet, through the care and attention of his parents he overcame that disability and went on to attend the University of Minnesota, winning the Keppel Prize for sculpture and a degree in architecture. He received a full scholarship at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and went on to study at both the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1938, Arnold took a professorship at Monticello College in Illinois and continued teaching there when it became Lewis and Clark Community College.
Although the spotlight of the art world rarely shone outside the major metropolitan areas of the country in 1969, the significance of Arnold’s work is undeniable. He had created a number of important and large-scale sculptures, most notably the 40-foot tall limestone monument for World War II Memorial Court of Honor in St. Louis. He was renowned for his expressionist work with religious and symbolic subject matter, and contributed sculptures to many churches and civic buildings in the Midwest.
The sculpture, New Heritage, was commissioned by the Monticello Foundation.
Hillis Arnold is an American artist, born in 1906.
