Administered by City of Newton Parks Department Newton Kansas 67114
Located Athletic Park Newton Kansas
Date:
1942. Dedicated Sept. 10, 1942
Notes:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, Kansas, Wichita survey, 1993.
Image on file.
Mennonite Life (Sept. 1979), pg. 10-15.
(Around edge of mosaic:) COMMEMORATING ENTRY INTO KANSAS FROM RUSSIA OF TURKEY RED HARD WHEAT BY MENNONITES, 1874 unsigned
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
The sculpture depicts in very little detail a standing male figure with a moustache and a long beard. In his lowered proper right hand he holds a wide-brimmed hat in front of him. His proper left arm is bent and rests across his waist with his proper left hand grasping his right arm at the elbow. The sculpture sits on a narrow, cylindrical base adorned with a ribbed surface. The base is placed in the center of a circular ceramic tile mosaic that illustrates the history of the Mennonite emigration from Russia to Kansas. The images depicted in the mosaic are: a Russian Byzantine-style church to represent the Russian heritage of the Kansas Mennonites; ships sailing the ocean bringing the Russian people and wheat to America; a train delivering the Mennonite settlers to Kansas; a Mennonite house, church, and school to represent Mennonite settlement in the Kansas wheat belt. The colors of the ceramic tiles in the mosaic are buff, black, terra cotta, avocado green, and sky blue.