A sculpture that is sometimes overlooked on campus because of its location tucked between the Library and the Classroom and Lab Building, Judith Shea’s Between Thought and Feeling offers a quiet moment of reflection for those who stop to look.

Judith Shea (b. 1948)
Between Thought and Feeling, 1988
Bronze and cast stone

The artists website here: Judith Shea

An essay on the piece by KU Art History Professor David Cateforis: Judith Shea essay by David Cateforis

An article here in artforum that discusses her work and also specifically addresses this sculpture: JUDITH SHEA’S CONTEMPORARY KOREA (artforum.com)

A quote from the article linked above: “In Between Thought and Feeling, 1988, the same bronze sheath form—more clearly than ever identified with the artist—again sits Madonna-like on a large cube, holding an antique head of Alexander the Great that springs up like a phallus from her lap. This once-powerful male ruler is decapitated, however, reduced here to an item of display subordinate to the maternal figure. Here it is the artist/mother who has both mastered and assimilated the past, which can now be offered lovingly but somewhat poignantly as a kind of trophy.”