HistoryLink Tours

Anawog by Jan Evans (1978)

Unlike the pensive works of Pioneer Place Park, Jan Evans’s (b. 1927) abstract, riveted and welded, nine-foot-high steel sculpture, Anawog, can simply be enjoyed for its elegant, fluid shape and its bright “International Orange” color. Evans worked for years as an abstract and minimalist painter before turning her attention to sculpture. Her earlier large canvases were black on white or white on black. Through sculpture, she continued a sense of painterliness, but changed her color palette significantly.

Anawog (sometimes referred to as Anawog I) was first seen at Pioneer Square’s Foster/White Gallery’s annual invitational sculpture show in June 1977. The gallery installed the work, along with four others from the show, in its outdoor plaza. Perhaps it was there that Evans’s work caught the eye of a generous donor, as it was gifted to the City’s collection shortly thereafter. The work’s title is unclear, and its shape has been described as everything from a “lisping analog” to a “Jim Flora [the famed jazz album cover artist] squiggle writ large.”

When Evans was asked about her abstract work, she said: “All an artist can worry about is [her] idea … That idea will be compromised if you think about what other people want. You have to have faith that others will analyze, think about, and pursue your idea. The key to all artistic pursuit is that you must be true to your own experience.”

How would you interpret Anawog?

Walk two blocks east along S Washington Street until you reach Fourth Avenue S and Fire Station 10.