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Community
Alumni
NEW ARTWORK ON CAMPUS BRINGS GRAD AT GRAD INTO FULL COLOR
Over Christmas Break, the Facilities team installed five new works of art on the wall of the main staircase of Tradition Hall in the Boys Division. Great Raider and current RJ art teacher and chaplain, Fr. Tom Rochford, SJ ‘64, conceived of the works that highlight five Jesuits and how they embody the hallmarks of the Graduate at Graduation:
A brief biography of each Jesuit is included on a sign posted beneath the collage of the five paintings.
- Open to Growth – Servant of God Matteo Ricci, SJ
- Intellectually Competent – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
- Religious – Pedro Arrupe, SJ
- Loving – St. Claude de la Colombière, SJ
- Committed to Doing Justice – St. Alberto Hurtado, SJ
A brief biography of each Jesuit is included on a sign posted beneath the collage of the five paintings.
Rochford was inspired by the stained-glass windows of College Church in St. Louis, on which he co-authored a book. For these paintings, he sought to combine a portrait of each Jesuit with other elements illustrating where he worked and what he did.
The painting of Pedro Arrupe incorporates the dome of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome because Arrupe served in Rome as Superior General of the Jesuits. It also depicts the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, where Arrupe was working as a missionary before being elected Superior General. Rochford notes, “Part of the fun of this project was finding images that speak to the Jesuit’s life in an unusual way. I love the green truck in St. Alberto Hurtado’s painting and the skull of the Peking Man in de Chardin’s.”
Rochford created the five paintings in his studio at the Jesuit Residence over a five-month span from October 2020 to March 2021. Originally painted in oil on 24x36 canvases, the images were enlarged four times and mounted on specially coated aluminum panels to protect them from dust and the light from the skylights above the stairwell by Magnify Signs, owned by alumni parent Tim Root.
Rochford appreciates the juxtaposition these new pieces create with the historic black and white photos from Regis Jesuit’s past. “When you stand in the center of Tradition Hall, you see the black and white photos of [the school’s] past, and now above them, the paintings of the five Jesuits who embody the broader tradition of Jesuits. These five men look across to the big artwork of St. Ignatius on the opposite wall of Tradition Hall. I hope students, staff and visitors become more aware of the history and mission that makes Regis Jesuit distinct.”
Watch a feature story about the installation from RJ Media
Rochford created the five paintings in his studio at the Jesuit Residence over a five-month span from October 2020 to March 2021. Originally painted in oil on 24x36 canvases, the images were enlarged four times and mounted on specially coated aluminum panels to protect them from dust and the light from the skylights above the stairwell by Magnify Signs, owned by alumni parent Tim Root.
Rochford appreciates the juxtaposition these new pieces create with the historic black and white photos from Regis Jesuit’s past. “When you stand in the center of Tradition Hall, you see the black and white photos of [the school’s] past, and now above them, the paintings of the five Jesuits who embody the broader tradition of Jesuits. These five men look across to the big artwork of St. Ignatius on the opposite wall of Tradition Hall. I hope students, staff and visitors become more aware of the history and mission that makes Regis Jesuit distinct.”
Watch a feature story about the installation from RJ Media
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