This 4-ton steel sculpture was created in 1991 by internationally renowned and award winning sculptor Mark di Suvero, who has been a lifelong advocate for public art. Inspired by writings of its namesake, poet Jala al-Din Rumi, the sculpture's dynamic shape represents movements from dances used during Sufi worship. Its construction is of steel I-beams and was painted orange to symbolize the Golden Gate Bridge. Rumi was gifted to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from the Hall Family Foundation in 1999. Other works by di Suvero can be seen in museums and public collections throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Rumi was completed in 1991 and placed on exhibit for several years before coming to Kansas City. First in the Grass Roots Art Energy exhibit in Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York from April 1991 to April 1992; then at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, New York City from December 1993 to August 1994; and outside of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection museum from June 11 to October 15, 1995 in a seven-piece exhibit called Mark di Suvero a Venezia, in which sculptures were placed at different sites throughout Venice, Italy. The Hall Family Foundation purchased Rumi from the Oil & Steel Gallery in Long Island City in 1995, and gifted it to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in 1999. 

This painted steel sculpture is approximately 24-by-9-by-7 feet large and weighs nearly 4 tons. Celebrating industrial construction, Rumi is made of I-beams and features orange paint, symbolic of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the city where artist Mark di Suvero was raised. The sculpture also characterizes the dynamic movement of Whirling Dervishes, a trance-like dance of worship in Sufism, which was inspired by the writings of the sculptures’ namesake, the 13th-century Persian poet Jala al-Din Rumi. Di Suvero remarked, "One of the things I try to do is to be multicultural. The effort in unifying the cultures of the world is one of the major forces of the 21st-century.”

American artist Marco Polo “Mark” di Suvero was born in Shanghai, China in 1933 while his father was stationed as a naval ambassador for Italy. He came to the United States in 1941 and was raised in San Francisco, later earning a Bachelor of Art in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley. As an artist in the Abstract Expressionist era, self trained welder and licensed crane operator Mark di Suvero was the pioneer of large scale steel sculpture and began showing his work in the late 1950s. 

Di Suvero has long been committed to helping artists and enhancing communities through creating public art. In 1962, he co-founded the first artists' cooperative in New York City called Park Place Gallery, founded the Athena Foundation in 1977 which provided artists materials and space in order to realize their creative vision, and established Socrates Sculpture Park in 1986, which transformed the site of a Queens, New York landfill into an outdoor exhibition space that has hosted the work of over 900 artists to date.

With work displayed in more than 100 museums and public collections, including in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom, di Suvero has become internationally renowned. His recognition includes the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center (2000); Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities (2005); Smithsonian Archives of American Art Medal (2010); National Medal of the Arts from President Obama (2010); and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Sculpture (2013).

Rumi, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Accessed August 26th, 2022. https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/16195/rumi.

About, Spacetime CC . Accessed August 26th, 2022. https://www.spacetimecc.com/About.

Mark di Suvero a Venezia, Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Accessed August 26th, 2022. https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/en/whats-on/exhibitions/mark-di-suvero-a-venezia/.

Mark di Suvero, The Heinz Awards. Accessed August 26th, 2022. https://www.heinzawards.org/pages/mark-di-suvero.

Mark di Suvero: Rumi and Huru, Public Art Fund. Accessed August 26th, 2022. https://www.publicartfund.org/exhibitions/view/rumi-and-huru/#section_2.

Athena Foundation 1977-1986, Socrates Sculpture Park. Accessed August 26th, 2022. https://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/AthenaFoundation.pdf.