What information is available about the paintings on the 3rd floor?
Answer
There are two paintings on the east wall of the main floor of Lauinger Library:
- "Cuando un enano se sube sobre otros, forman una torre" ("When one dwarf stands upon the shoulders of another, he becomes a giant," translated by Patricia Soler) by Chilean artist Guillermo Nuñez (b. 1930). The painting was donated in 1967 by Lawrence J. Heller, LLB.
- "The Silent Memories of Mme. Goriot" (1986) It was painted by H. Ron Banks (b.1953), a local artist who exhibited paintings at the Govinda Gallery in Georgetown in 1992. It was donated by Georgetown neighbor Donald Charney in 2011, who purchased it directly from the artist in 1986.
In "The Silent Memories of Mme. Goriot," a seated figure is intersected by horizontal and vertical bands with geometric designs, the number 23, the letters R and B, and a three-quarter profile of a woman in 19th century costume. The subject may refer to the famous 19th century novel by Honoré de Balzac, entitled Le Père Goriot (1819).