A significant share of Marquis Landrum’s personal sculpture collection has been bequeathed to East Central University, it was recently announced.
The collection includes 27 three-dimensional works of non-western origin. Many of the more fragile artifacts will be displayed in cases in the gallery of the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center.
Additionally, eight stone sculptures, seven of which are ancient and from Southeast Asia, will be installed in the Inasmuch Sculpture Garden in the fine arts center. This includes a larger ‘Ancestor Head’ from the Napu Valley on the Island of Sulawesi, two large “Ancestor Figures’ and a ‘Penji Figure’, also from Napu Valley. They will be combined with some contemporary works in the collection from other locations worldwide in the garden.
Landrum donated these works in memory of his mother, Ruth Walker Landrum, and the collection will bear her name. Ruth Walker Ladrum served an adjunct art instructor at ECU in the 1930s. Marquis credited her with his interest in collecting fine art both personally and as part of his business, Landrum Holding.
These artworks join another recent sculpture acquisition: DJ Lafon’s ‘Shaker Man’ which was transferred to the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center last fall from the Fred Jones Art Museum in Norman. That sculpture had been damaged and was removed from view.
However, ECU was able to restore the work, using some of the same tools Lafon used to create the work. It has been placed out in front of the fine arts center, toward the southeast corner.
“Together these new acquisitions have made the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center home to the best collection of artworks between Dallas and Norman, and add significantly to the learning resources and cultural resources available to students in this region,” said Brad Jessop, professor and art director in ECU’s School of Fine Arts.
ECU was selected along with Yale University, Montclair State University, Princeton University and the University of Oklahoma to receive work from the Landrum collection.
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