Temple #24

Temple #24 belongs to Wyman's Temple series, a group he began working on after a three-month trip to Honduras in 1965, during which he saw ruins of the Mayan civilization. The yellow and orange ceramic sculpture echoes the architectural and spiritual qualities of ancient step pyramids on a much smaller scale and in a simplified form. Marilyn Pappas, a textile artist and Wyman's partner, has noted the sense of quiet meditation that artworks such as Temple #24 encourage. With its minute and impenetrable entrance, the work causes the viewer to ponder the unknown, inaccessible and undetermined space inside the diminutive ceramic structure. The yellow and orange coloration could be seen as referencing a landscape, perhaps evoking a Central American sunset.