Frederick Hart (sculptor)

Frederick Hart
Born	Frederick Elliott Hart November 3, 1943 Atlanta,Georgia
Died	August 13, 1999(1999-08-14)(aged 55) Baltimore,Maryland
Nationality	American
Education	University of South Carolina(Did not graduate) George Washington University(Did not graduate) American University(Did not graduate)
Known for	Sculpture
Notable work	Ex Nihilo,Washington National Cathedral; The Three Soldiers,Vietnam Veterans Memorial;James Earl Carter Presidential Statue,Georgia State Capitol

Ex Nihilo(1978–1984)

Frederick Elliott Hart(November 3, 1943 – August 13, 1999) was an American sculptor. The creator of hundreds of public monuments, private commissions, portraits, and other works of art, Hart is most famous forEx Nihilo,a part of hisCreation SculpturesatWashington National Cathedral,andThe Three Servicemen(also known asThe Three Soldiers), at theVietnam Veterans Memorialin Washington, D.C.

Working within the figurative tradition of AmericanBeaux-Artssculpture, Hart's approach was that of a craftsman. With little formal schooling, he developed his skills on the job, learning ancient techniques from master carvers.

Hart modeled his work inclay.Many of his larger pieces were carved in Italianmarbleorlimestone,or cast inbronze.Throughout his career, Hart explored themes of beauty and spirituality, consciousness and identity, sculpting in transparent and semi-transparentacrylicmaterials using a process he patented.

Strongly influenced by the dramatic poses ofGian Lorenzo BerniniandAnna Hyatt Huntington,as well as thenaturalismofAugustus Saint-GaudensandDaniel Chester French,Hart's style was also shaped by that ofAuguste Rodin,especially in the way he conveyed movement, experimented with abstract forms, and pushed the boundaries of traditional figurative art.

According toJ. Carter Brown,Director Emeritus of theNational Gallery of Art,“It is breathtaking to see an artist with the technical abilities and devotion to craft of Frederick Hart combine these gifts with an ability to go to the brink with them, but somehow keep the inner, emotional, intellectual and spiritual force of the work dominant."In the words ofTom Wolfe:“Rick is—and I do not say this lightly—America’s greatest sculptor.”

Early life

Frederick "Rick" Hart was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Joanna Elliott, and Frederick William Hart, a heavy drinker who had served in theUnited States NavyduringWorld War II.Hart's older brother, also named Frederick William, died as an infant. Hart's mother contractedscarlet feverand died in 1945, when Hart was two.

As he grew up, and his relationship with his father suffered, Hart became known as a troublemaker, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother and aunt inHorry County,South Carolina.Hart's father began working as a newspaper reporter in Atlanta, and married Myrtis Mildred Hailey in 1947. Half-sister Chesley Hart was born in 1949. In 1956, they moved toVirginia,near Washington, D.C., and Hart rejoined his family. Although his relationship with his father continued to deteriorate, Hart and his half-sister Chesley became good friends.

Hart was an avid reader, but a troubled student. After failing ninth grade, he was sent back to South Carolina to live with his Aunt Essie, and to repeat the school year. Teachers were worried he would fail out of high school. The principal was almost certain that he would. He challenged Hart to take theA.C.T.to show how little he knew. When Hart achieved a near-perfect score, the principal was stunned. In 1959, he helped sixteen-year-old Hart gain early admission to theUniversity of South CarolinainColumbia, South Carolina.

At the same time, theCivil Rights Movementwas gathering strength, and the campaign to desegregate South Carolina's school system began. In Columbia, in 1961, African-American students led 250 in a protest march against racial segregation.Hart was the only white student to join them:

“I was just walking by,” Hart said. “I happened to know some of the demonstrators. They were fromBenedict College,a black school in Columbia. I went over and started talking to them. That irritated the volunteer police (who were used for riot control). They told me to move along. At that point, I said, ‘Screw you.’ And I joined the demonstration.”

Hart was expelled from the University of South Carolina, thrown in jail, and then chased out of town by theKu Klux Klan.

Artistic career

In 1965, Hart’s sister, Chesley, was diagnosed withleukemia.Because her parents were unable to cope with the illness, Chesley's Aunt Grace became hercaregiver.Hart tried to stem his family’s disintegration by helping Aunt Grace as much as he could.The next year, when she was just 16, Chesley died.

In the turbulent period after her death, Hart “stumble[d] into a sculpture class at theCorcoran School of Art,and [was] blown away.”Mourning Chesley shaped what Hart would later describe as his “moral responsibility” as an artist.As he said: Art must” give hope to the darkness.”It” must be a part of life. It must be an enriching, ennobling and vital partner... It should be a majestic presence in everyday life. "

Hart dropped out of the Corcoran, then attended art classes atAmerican Universityin Washington, D.C., but dropped out again before receiving a degree.While working at Giorgio Gianetti Studio of Architectural Sculpture, he assisted sculptorsFelix de Weldon,Carl Mose, Don Turano, and Heinz Warnecke.Hart was also using his time in Washington, D.C., as an opportunity to study the public art of the nation's capital, and absorb the naturalistic style of sculptorDaniel Chester French.

Toward the end of the 1960s, Hart began work on one of his earliest and most personal sculptures,Family.Years later, Hart would say thatFamilywas for him a way to come to terms with Chesley's death; it was an effort to represent an idea of stability, to capture a sense of belonging.The first casting Hart presented as a gift to his girlfriend in 1969.Stylistically,Familysignals Hart's tendency to straddle the line betweenClassicalandRomanticsculptural traditions. The heavy pyramidal form of Hart'sFamilyevokes the solidity of French'sAbraham Lincoln,but the raw, earthy contours set it apart, and situate it within the Romantic tradition ofRodin.

Washington National Cathedral

In 1967, Hart took a job as a clerk in the mail room atWashington National Cathedral.He did so for the specific purpose of pesteringRoger Morigi.Morigi was the Cathedral's legendary master carver, an Italian immigrant who had carved the iconicfriezeof theUnited States Supreme Court Building."Highly respected, [Morigi] was a temperamental perfectionist who didn't tolerate incompetence and wasn't shy about sharing his opinions."Hart wanted Morigi to take him on as an apprentice. In time, it worked: Morigi became his mentor. Not only that, he became a father figure to Hart, who had long been estranged from his own parents.

"Working at the cathedral was the best experience of my learning life," Hart said. "It taught me 'how' to work. I wanted to know and feel the discipline—the mastery of stone carving—and I learned that in the hours of working up on the scaffolding in the heat of summer and through the winter."At first, Morigi put Hart to work on floral ornaments, primarily ceilingBoss es.Because they were so high up, and far from view, any rookie mistakes would be less noticeable there, but for Hart, this meant scaling more than ten stories of scaffolding, and working high up off the ground.As his training progressed, Morigi gave him more responsibilities. Hart carved reliefs, motifs, andgargoyles,and sculpted a figure ofErasmus.He was on his way to becoming a master carver himself when the Cathedral Building Committee announced a major competition.

Creation Sculptures

In 1971, theWashington National CathedralBuilding Committee held a competition to determine the appearance of the west façade, the main entrance of the Cathedral. This was not just an important commission, it was a radical break with tradition. In the past, the west façade of a Christian cathedral typically featured a depiction of theLast Judgment;however, the Cathedral Building Committee wanted Washington National Cathedral to be the exception. Instead of the traditional image of judgment and destruction, they wanted to emphasize a message of love and affirmation, and so they specifically asked artists to focus on the theme ofCreation.

To an ambitious young artist like Hart, it was an irresistible opportunity: a compelling theme, and a chance to see his own work carved in limestone over the main entrance of the Cathedral. Interestingly, too, the committee was willing to consider nonrepresentational,avant-gardedesigns, so for three years, Hart sketched in clay.His originaltympanumdesign (from early 1974) was a wide, bare space, from which a woman's face emerges. The Cathedral Building Committee rejected this submission, as well as those of all the other artists. Only three sculptors were invited to submit new proposals. Hart was not one of them. Undeterred, Hart submitted a revised design of his own. Guided by the writings ofPierre Teilhard de Chardin,and the idea of a dynamic universe, whirling into existence, Hart developed a revolutionary, unifying vision for the entire west façade.To the committee's approval, he submitted new models for the central tympanum, for the left and right tympana, and for the figures on thetrumeauxbelow them.

In developingEx Nihilo—the central sculpture, by far the largest of the group—Hart studied the combination of figurative and abstract forms inRodin’s massive sculpture,The Gates of Hell.The final, full-size version ofEx Nihilospans 21 feet, and stands two stories high."The spiraling forms that recur throughout Hart'sEx Nihilosuggest the spirals that are found in nature—in sunflower heads, nautiluses, hurricanes, and galaxies. "Hart intended the title as a double reference toAristotle( "out of nothing nothing can be made" ) and the Bible ( "everything is made out of nothing" ).

For the central trumeau, Hart sculpted an image ofAdam,and for the tympana on either side, day and night.As a complete sculptural ensemble, theCreation Sculpturesconstitute "the most monumental commission for religious sculpture in the United States in the twentieth century."

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Main article:The Three Soldiers

After laboring over theCreation Sculpturesfor ten years, with the project approaching completion at last, Hart began to look around Washington, D.C., for new jobs.To submit a proposal for theVietnam Veterans Memorial,Hart teamed up with architect Sheila Brady.Just as in the competition for the Cathedral Building Committee, Hart's initial plan was not accepted. His team placed third.However, in response to the controversy over the winning architect's design, theVietnam Veterans Memorial Fundtasked Hart, as the most highly ranked sculptor in the competition, to provide a sculptural component.Hart conceived a sculpture of three soldiers "not at the apex [of the wall], as originally planned[,] but 400 feet away from the wall as if looking for their own names."

Hart had become a master carver in 1974, and instead of continuing to work exclusively as a carver, he hoped to build on the success he had already won with more commissions sculpting national monuments.He would bring with him the time-honored techniques he had learned at the Cathedral, as an artisan among artisans, even as he acquired a stronger sense of his own destiny as an original artist, a sense of confidence in his own creative vision and capabilities. Of his work onThe Three Soldiers,Hart said he would put the “folds of those fatigue jackets and pants up against the folds of any [carved] medieval angel you can find.”

James Earl Carter Presidential Statue

In the 1981 competition to design theCarter Presidential Library,Hart was a principal of the winning team with Jova, Daniels, and Busby Architects (Atlanta,Georgia), andEDAWLandscape Design Firm (Alexandria, Virginia).Hart was asked to provide a portrait ofPresident Jimmy Carter,and on June 7, 1994, thestatue of Jimmy Carterwas unveiled at theGeorgia State Capitolin Atlanta.Among the guests were GovernorZell Miller,President Carter, and Mrs.Rosalynn Carter.Hart said:

"I am greatly honored to have been selected to sculpt President Carter, a man who served our country in so many ways. From the Camp David Accords and SALT II treaty, that were among the achievements of his presidency, to the myriad projects he has since undertaken on behalf of human and environmental needs.

"In honor of President Carter’s past work as a farmer as well as his environmental initiatives, and his work on behalf of grassroots organizations, I have sculpted him in bronze on a low pedestal, in an informal pose, dressed in khakis with his sleeves rolled up... The gestures of the figure refer to the generosity of Carter’s nature, his eagerness to share a vision of justice, and his unpretentious delight in spreading a message of brotherhood."

Carter said he liked the portrayal: "It was that image that put me in the White House and the governor's office, and I hope I can remain... (like that) in the future," he said.

Works in acrylic

In 1972, Hart opened his own sculpture studio, to create original artwork, and execute commissioned pieces.Hart modeled his figurative style on the dramatic poses and sensuous expressions that he admired in the work of the Italian sculptorGian Lorenzo Bernini. Many were cast inbronze,some were carved inmarbleorlimestone,but especially after the success ofHerself(1984), Hart focused more and more on developing entirely new media for sculpture, using transparent and semi-transparentacrylicmaterials.

As seen inElegy(1990), Hart developed an original process for embedding one acrylic sculpture in another.With the liquid look ofice sculptures,and their capacity to refract light, these pieces are perhaps his most distinctive. In these, according to Hart, “The sculpture is defined purely by light.” It is a “very delicate sense of image… suggestive of dreams, memories, and visions.”

“All the clear acrylic resin works are really the offspring of the Cathedral work,” Hart said. “They deal with being and non-being. In the Cathedral, the figures emerge from something that is tangible, from a mass of stone. But more beautifully, in a sense, the clear acrylic figures emerge and disappear.” According to Hart, the innovative sculptural medium creates a “relationship between light and form, and a sense of mystery around being and non-being.”

In honor of the Pope's fifty years of priesthood, Hart presented an acrylic work titledThe Cross of the MillenniumtoPope John Paul IIin a ceremony at the Vatican in 1997. When it was unveiled, Pope John Paul II called the sculpture “a profound theological statement for our day.”Hart sculpted a smaller version ofThe Cross of the Millennium,cast and released as a limited edition.

Hart hoped to use acrylic on a monumental scale, for a public art project, but died before he was able to do so.Today, much of what he sculpted in acrylic remains in private collections.Among these pieces, Hart's later works tend to be "distinguished by an allusive rather than representational nature."

Later life

Hart supported local civic groups and environmental causes.He donated sculpture to benefit theDesign Industries Foundation Fighting AIDSandOperation Smile.In 1995 he created and donated a memorial portrait of African-American educatorRuby Middleton Forsythe,to honor the local hero who devoted her life to teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in a small town in South Carolina, where Hart had grown up.

While researching theCreation Sculptures,Hart studied theBook of Genesis,and became aRoman Catholic.He married Lindy Lain on December 1, 1978, in acivil ceremony,and on June 2, 1980, their marriage was blessed atSaint Matthew's Cathedral.First son Frederick Lain Hart was born June 21, 1980, and second son Alexander Thaddeus Hart was born January 7, 1983.

In 1997,Washington National Cathedralasked Hart to join a lawsuit accusing a major motion picture company of copyright infringement for the appropriation ofEx Nihiloin the 1997 filmThe Devil's Advocate.Over the course of the initial proceedings, "it soon became clear that the filmmakers had simply placedEx Nihiloon a computer template, removed one figure, and then manipulated the figures. "

However, Hart was cautious because in the 1990s plaintiffs in suits against major corporations were sometimes ridiculed in the media as part of public relations campaigns funded by the corporations themselves."During sessions at US Federal Court over the case that winter, the strain on Hart was wincingly visible."As stress and mounting legal fees took a toll on Hart's health, in 1998, he suffered a stroke.

A federal judge ruled that unless a settlement could be reached the film's video release would be delayed until the case went to trial; the motion picture company then agreed to edit the scene for future releases, and to attach stickers to unedited videotapes to indicate they intended no relation between the sculpture in the film and Hart's work.

After his stroke, “Hart had pursued a rigorous regimen of physical therapy to regain the use of his left arm. He worked as arduously on his rehabilitation as he had on any work he ever created. Expecting to recover fully, he continued to sculpt almost every day... He was unaware that cancer was invading his body. Three weeks before he died, he became debilitated by pneumonia. It wasn't until a couple of days before the end that the rapidly spreading cancer was discovered.”

Hart died on August 13, 1999, two days after doctors atJohns Hopkins Hospitaldiagnosed him with cancer.

Awards and accolades

• (1980) awarded a patent for inventing a unique process of embedding one acrylic sculpture within another.
• (1985) appointed to theU.S. Commission of Fine Arts,a seven-member committee that advises the U.S. Government on matters pertaining the arts, and guides the architectural development of the nation's capital.
• (1986) appointed to the Board of Trustees,Brookgreen GardensSculpture Collection.
• (1987) received theHenry HeringAward from theNational Sculpture Societyfor sculpture in an architectural setting, shared with architectPhilip Frohman(for Washington National Cathedral work).
• (1987) participated in an invitational exhibit of works inPhiladelphiain conjunction with the Bicentennial of theU.S. Constitution.
• (1988) received the quadrennial Presidential Design Excellence Award (for Vietnam Veterans Memorial work).
• (1993) received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from theUniversity of South Carolinafor his "ability to create art that uplifts the human spirit, his commitment to the ideal that art must renew itsmoral authorityby rededicating itself to life, his skill in creating works that compel attention as they embrace the concerns of mankind, and his contributions to the rich cultural heritage of our nation. "
• (1998) received the first annualNewington-Cropsey FoundationAward for Excellence in the Arts.
• (2004) awarded (posthumously) theNational Medal of Arts,the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government, “for his important body of work—including the Washington National Cathedral's Creation Sculptures and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial's Three Soldiers—which heralded a new age for contemporary public art.”

Legacy

According to art historian James M. Goode, "the most significant new figurative works to grace public spaces in Washington during the late twentieth century were created by Frederick Hart."While working with new materials made possible by modern technology, Hart championed craftsmanship and naturalism, and explored new themes. He is admired for his "animated compositions" and "attention to detail."At the time of its dedication, Hart'sThe Three Soldierswas the first representation of an African American on theNational Mall.

Throughout his career, Hart collaborated with sculptorJay Hall Carpenter.Once Hart's assistant, now an award-winning artist in his own right, Carpenter has produced sculpture for theState Department,theSmithsonian Institution,andCanterbury Cathedral.His recent work includes a portrait ofJim Henson.From 1996 to 1999, Hart’s assistant was the Russian-born sculptor Mikael F. Sogoian.

In his later years, Hart became the center of a group of like-minded artists, poets, and philosophers striving to move beyond theModernistandPost-Modernistcategories which dominated the 20th century.Crediting Hart for a renewal of interest in the human figure in art in the early twenty-first century, one art critic and historian wrote in 2005 that “The work of Frederick Hart is changing the world of art.”

Also in 2005,Songs of Gracewas acquired by the StateHermitage MuseuminSt. Petersburg, Russia.In 2008, theUniversity of Louisvilleand theLouisville Ballet,Louisville, Kentucky,premiered the ballet,Between Stillness,inspired by the sculpture,Ex Nihilo.In September of the same year,Ex Nihilo, Fragment No.8was installed at theLightner MuseuminSaint Augustine, Florida.

In May 2019The Frederick Hart Studio Museumopened inNashville, Tennessee.

Notable works

• Creation Sculptures(includingEx Nihilo) – West façade ofWashington National Cathedral.Commissioned in 1974, and dedicated between 1978 and 1984.
• James E. Webb– Bronze bust ofNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationAdministratorJames E. Webbfor theNational Air and Space Museumof theSmithsonian Institution,1982.
• The Three Soldiers–Vietnam Veterans Memorialin Washington, D.C. Dedicated in 1984.
• Fauquier County Veterans' Memorial– 40' bronze collaboration with sculptorJay Hall Carpenter,in Warrenton,Virginia,1991.
• James Earl Carter Presidential Statue– Georgia State Capitol inAtlanta,Georgia. Dedicated in 1994.
• SenatorRichard B. Russellsculpture – Rotunda of theRussell Senate Office Buildingin Washington, D.C. Dedicated in 1996.
• The Cross of the Millennium– Acrylic sculpture presented toPope John Paul IIin 1997 in honor of 50 years of priesthood.
• Songs of Grace– Acrylic sculpture acquired in 2005 for the permanent collection of the StateHermitage MuseuminSt. Petersburg, Russia.
• Three Soldiers, Detail– Bronze sculpture installed in 2008 and dedicated by Jan C. Scruggs, Founder,Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund,at the Veterans Memorial Plaza, Apalachicola, Florida.

Gallery

• 
  Ex Nihilo(centraltympanum,Creation Sculptures) Washington, D.C.
• 
  Adam(centraltrumeau,Creation Sculptures) Washington, D.C.
• 
  Richard B. Russell–Russell Senate Office Building,Washington, D.C.

Bibliography

• Frederick Hart: Sculptor(Hudson Hills Press, 1995)ISBN1-55595-120-1
• Frederick Hart: Changing Tides(Hudson Hills Press, 2005)ISBN978-1-55595-233-4
• Frederick Hart: The Complete Works(Butler Books, 2007)ISBN1-884532-85-3

External links

• Official website
• New York Times MagazineObituary by Tom Wolfe