Clio Logo
This is a contributing entry for Heart of Downtown Charleston WV Public Art Tour and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.

Untitled Fountain (1967 - 2020)

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This untitled fountain in the courtyard of the Kanawha County Public Library was erected concurrently with the library in 1967. A $40,000 gift from the Joe Lowenstein Memorial Foundation funded landscaping and the fountain. Robert Cronbach designed and installed the work, which is bronze. Cronbach — famous for his sculptures and fountains at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the United Nations — designed this work to look like water flowing over rocks and mountains. The piece remained in operation as a fountain until July 2020. The piece has since been removed due to library renovations. It is being temporarily stored and will eventually be permanently installed at an undecided location.

Images

Robert Cronbach leans on the fountain during installation, 1967.

Monochrome, Arch, Monochrome photography, Black-and-white

The sculpture in its original location in front of the library.

Fixture, Door, Sculpture, Concrete

The work being removed for safe storage in 2020.

Tire, Wheel, Automotive tire, Fender

Sources

Current Location, Kanawha County Public Library. Accessed December 16th 2020. http://old.kanawhalibrary.org/about/history/3.html.

Office of Public Art - Charleston, WV, Facebook. July 21st 2020. Accessed December 16th 2020. https://www.facebook.com/publicartcharlestonwv/posts/762149937891387.

Robert Cronbach, 93, Sculptor and Teacher, The New York Times. December 24th 2001. Accessed December 16th 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/24/arts/robert-cronbach-93-sculptor-and-teacher.html.

Vintage West Virginia: A new fountain for the Kanawha library, Charleston Gazette-Mail. October 6th 2019. Accessed December 16th 2020. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/multimedia/vintage_west_virginia/vintage-west-virginia-a-new-fountain-for-the-kanawha-library/image_3061f55c-9f7d-5836-9cff-0f8b390e31e8.html.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Hawes, Chet. Charleston Gazette-Mail. Accessed December 16, 2020. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/multimedia/vintage_west_virginia/vintage-west-virginia-a-new-fountain-for-the-kanawha-library/image_3061f55c-9f7d-5836-9cff-0f8b390e31e8.html.

Office of Public Art, Charleston WV. Accessed December 16, 2020. https://gisweb.cityofcharleston.org/storymaps/arttour/#.

Office of Public Art - Charleston, WV. Facebook. Accessed December 16, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/publicartcharlestonwv/posts/762149937891387.

Additional Information