New sculpture installed outside of Jorgensen 

A new sculpture, titled Rouge et Noir, was installed outside of the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in October 2024. The 1985 sculpture was designed by the late David V. Hayes and was gifted to the university by Elliot Taubman, a friend of Hayes and an alumnus from UConn’s undergraduate program and the UConn School of Law. 

Rouge et Noir, which translates to red and black in English, is composed of a series of welded steel panels, a style Hayes was known across his 60 years as a full-time sculptor, according to his website. David M. Hayes, the sculptor’s son, explained why Taubman gifted this sculpture to the university. 

“It’s a nice gesture on the part of my late father’s best friend gifting one of my dad’s sculptures to the university,” Hayes said. “[Rouge et Noir] was on Block Island, [Taubman’s] residence, for several decades… The gift was made by Elliot several years ago, but it was only installed recently. I believe it had long been Elliot’s intention to give that piece to the university.” 

Hayes talked about how his father would get inspiration for his sculptures. 

“Wherever he went he always had a large sketchbook with him, so if he was walking outdoors… he would just sketch contours or outlines of shapes you would see in nature, which could be anything,” Hayes said. “It could be shapes of leaves, it could be hills coming together, it could be animals that he would see out in the wild. He would grab these sketches of glimpses that he would catch in his environment and take those back to his studio.” 

This isn’t Hayes’ only sculpture at the UConn Storrs campus. He also has a sculpture outside of St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel, which he used to attend, and a sculpture in the lobby of William Benton Museum of Art, according to Hayes’ son. Additionally, Hayes has sculptures across the U.S.A. and in many major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum. 

“My father spent a lifetime doing this,” he said. “He raised a family doing this, he put four of us through college doing the art and just the art. He was commercially successful… and he had just a great life, a 60-year career just making sculptures.” 

Since his death in 2013, Hayes’ residence was converted into the David Hayes Sculpture Fields, an area to display his artwork. The fields, located in Coventry, span over 50 acres and are completely open to the public. 

Hayes talked about how he’s felt “really proud” to see his father’s artwork displayed and honored over a decade after his death. 

“My dad was a kind, dear, decent man, and I love my father…. What I’ve been able to do over the last decade is sublimate my sadness into advancing his legacy and I believe I’ve done that successfully,” he said. “That’s the task for any artist, it’s critical to keep the name out there and keep the name relevant… I do that personally by a fair amount of travel, I visit museum directors and museum curators, I do gallery exhibitions, I do publications.” 

“I’m just deeply proud that that connection between my father and his best friend Elliot is represented in the gift that Elliot made to UConn,” Hayes said. 

More information about Hayes and his sculptures can be found on his website, www.davidhayes.com.