New Sculpture Adorns Mount Vernon Campus

Thanks to the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, GW’s Mount Vernon has a new outdoor sculpture: “Pownal” by Isaac Witkin. The steel sculpture is part of the GW Permanent Collection.

“Pownal” reflects the mountains and landscape of the Vermont town it is named after. Now located on the hillside outside the Academic Building, the work was created in 1975. It is constructed of Cor-Ten steel and measures three feet in height and 13 feet in diameter.

Born in South Africa in 1936, Witkin studied with and was assistant to English sculptor Henry Moore after attending art school in London. In 1965, he came to the United States to accept a position at Bennington College in Vermont. There, he met like-minded artists such as Jules Olitski, Anthony Caro, and Kenneth Noland. Witkin’s early sculptures, constructed of fiberglass and wood, transitioned into large works of steel by the late 1960s. He died in 2006.

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