Willis Guthrie
Willis Guthrie, Professor Emeritus from Carroll University, was the Chairman of the Art Department and taught art courses at Carroll from 1946 through 1983. He was raised in rural Iowa and attended the University of Iowa where he was a graduate student of Grant Wood.
Guthrie began his career as a painter in the American Regionalism style, but soon realized his passion was assemblage, the art of combining seemingly disparate items into something new. He loved going to rummage sales, junkyards and resale stores. He’d bring home items to add to his pile of objects and then, with his eye for design, find just the right shape, color or texture in a piece of rummage that was perfect for a sculpture he was composing.
Willis was also a creator, along with Team Guthrie, of the Red Hot Red, 10 foot tall guitar for the 2012 Waukesha Gibson GuitarTown celebration.
Untitled is an assemblage. It is comprised of 2 cast iron trivets attached together to create a mask-like image, one of his favorite themes.
Sue Van Haitsma generously donated Untitled by Willis Guthrie to the Library in 2024 and it is located on the pillar near the fiction area near Guthrie’s other piece in our collection entitled Hidden Witch.