The iconic limestone blocks located on the grounds of the flood-damaged Hancher Auditorium are scheduled to be relocated northeast to the Hancher replacement site, east of the Levitt Center for Advancement, sometime in February.

Untitled, created by artist Luther Utterback in 1976, was installed after Wallace Tomasini, University of Iowa professor and former director of the School of Art and Art History, directed a competition for the piece. The blocks of stone were cut at the Reed Quarries near Bloomington, Ind., weighing approximately 40 tons apiece, and transported to Iowa City by railroad where Utterback designed the siting and positioning.

Utterback studied sculpture and drawing at the UI, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970, Master of Arts in 1972, and Master of Fine Arts in 1973. During graduate school, he was a teaching assistant in sculpture and 3-D design classes, and, in 1974, served as an instructor in the Department of Art and Art History. While living in New York and traveling in the United States, Italy, and Venezuela he produced vanguard work and exhibitions. In addition, his artwork was represented in corporate, private, and public collections, including the Des Moines Art Center, Meredith Corporation, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the UI Museum of Art.

Utterback died in 1997, at age 49, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Utterback sculpture is one example in UI collection of public art. For more information on the UI Art on Campus, or to browse an online gallery, visit: www.facilities.uiowa.edu/art-on-campus/.