Simple Justice
Artist: Thaul, Vivenne sculptor
With: W & E. Baum Bronze Tablet Corporation, founder
Status: In Situ
Title: Simple Justice (sculpture)
Dates: 1988
Medium: Bronze, brass, and stainless steel
Dimensions: H. 15 ft.
Inscription: SIMPLE JUSTICE/ BY/ VIVIENNE THAUL WECHTER/ THE DREAM CONSTANT/THE CLIMB DIFFICULT/A GIFT OF DAVID KLUGER/ SHARING THE HOPE OF HIS SON RICHARD, AUTHOR OF/THE BOOK “SIMPLE JUSTICE,” THAT AMERICA WILL SOME DAY OVERCOME RACISM AND BIAS IN ALL FORMS. (Circle in the center of sculpture:) SIMPLE JUSTICE – THE DREAM CONSTANT
Description: Eight crisscrossing hollow tubes extend vertically in a pyramidal shape, intersecting with a flat stainless steel ring, on top of which thin bronze letters read: “SIMPLE JUSTICE.”
Owner: Administered by Fordham University, Art Department, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, New York, New York 10458
Located at Fordham University, Sculpture Garden, Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street, New York, New York
Remarks: The inscription on the nearby plaque reads: A SCULPTURAL SYMBOL/ MEMORIALIZING, THE SPIRIT OF THE STORY/”SIMPLE JUSTICE.”/BED OF GRAVEL – COMPONENTS OF HUMANITY/SLANTED ANGLES & BEAMS – DIFFICULT CLIMB TO THE GOAL/ CIRCLE – HARMONY & UNITY/ APERTURE IN CIRCLE – VISION & HOPE. Vivienne Thaul Wechter was a Professor of the Psychology of Creativity at Fordham University and its Artist-in-Residence from 1964 until her death in 2001. The sculpture references both the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which declared the segregation of public schools unconstitutional and Richard Kluger’s 1976 book, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equity. Commissioned for Fordham’s Law School, Wechter’s abstract sculpture was the gift of David Kluger, the father of the author.
References:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York, New York survey, 1993.
Harrison, Marina and Lucy D. Rosenfeld, Artwalks in New York, New York: New York University Press, 2004, p. 86