Zenos Frudakis

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Zenos Frudakis
Zenos Frudakis Frank Rizzo.jpg
Frudakis, posed with his statue of former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo
Born 1951 (age 61–62)
San Francisco, California, United States
Nationality American
Field Sculpture
Training Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Works United States Air Force Memorial Honor Guard

Zenos Frudakis (born 1951) is a figurative sculptor whose subjects include portraits of living and historical individuals and poetic/philosophical sculpture with a post-modern sensibility. He lives and works near Philadelphia. His works — often of monumental size — are on display at Brookgreen Gardens,[1] The Lotos Club of New York City,[2] the Utsukushi ga-hara Open Air Museum in Japan,[3] the National Academy of Design,[4] and the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa[5] — as well as corporations, institutions, and private collections in the United States and abroad.

Contents

Biography [edit]

Freedom, 2001. GlaxoSmithKline World Headquarters, Philadelphia. 20 feet long, 8 feet high

Zenos father, born in Greece, came to the U.S. as a boy. The oldest of five children growing up in Greek culture, Zenos admired, respected, and was drawn to Greek sculpture. Greek art influenced his aesthetic vision; additional inspiration came from sculptors Michaelangelo, Bernini, Carpeaux and Rodin. The poetry of Eliot, Frost, Roethke and Graves, is important to Zenos, as is post-modern, deconstructionist philosophy. Born in 1951 in San Francisco to Greek musician and poet Vasilis Frudakis and Kassiani Alexis, Frudakis was raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Gary, Indiana, where he worked in the steel mills. He began sculpting at a very young age, and in 1972 came to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He studied sculpture with two Prix de Rome winners: his elder brother, sculptor Evangelos Frudakis, and painter James Hanes. At the University of Pennsylvania, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Fine Art.[6]

Notable works [edit]

In a career spanning over three decades, Frudakis has produced monumental figures such as the United States Air Force Memorial Honor Guard[7] and Freedom, created in 2001 for the GlaxoSmithKline headquarters in Philadelphia.[8]

Portrait statues and busts [edit]

  • Frank Rizzo, former mayor of Philadelphia. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture, 10 feet (3.0 m) high. Municipal Services Building Plaza (across from City Hall), Philadelphia, PA.[9]
  • Ellis Arnall, governor of Georgia 1943-1947. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. State House, Atlanta, GA.
  • Joe DiMaggio, Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Hollywood, FL
  • Mark Twain. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. The Lotos Club, New York, NY.[2]
  • Abraham Lincoln. Bronze, life size portrait bust.
  • Nina Simone, pianist, singer, civil rights activist. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Nina Simone Plaza, Tryon, NC

Poetic/philosophical sculpture [edit]

  • Paradigm Shift. Bronze, 18 feet (5.5 m) high. GMAC, Fort Washington, PA.
  • Dream to Fly. Bronze, 3 figures each 7 feet (2.1 m) high. Cherry Hill, NJ.

Public sculpture [edit]

  • Workers Memorial. Bronze figure in Cor-Ten steel circle, 8 feet (2.4 m) high. The Rose Garden, Bethlehem, PA.
  • Reaching. Bronze, 2 figures each 7 feet (2.1 m) high. Capitol Plaza, Indianapolis, IN.[10]

Sports sculpture [edit]

Arnold Palmer
  • Payne Stewart. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst, NC.[11]
  • Arnold Palmer. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Georgia Golf Hall of Fame; Latrobe, PA; Tralee, Ireland.

Small sculpture [edit]

  • Mr. & Mrs. Hershey. 24 inches high. The Hershey Archives, Hershey, PA.
  • Growth. 31 inches high.

Relief sculpture [edit]

  • Sanford Atwood, former president of Emory University. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
  • Joseph J. Ruvane, former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Research Triangle Park, NC.[12]

Animal sculpture [edit]

  • Elephant and Boy Fountain. Bronze, 12 feet (3.7 m) high, 11 feet (3.4 m) long. Burlington Mall, Burlington, NJ.
  • Irish Wolfhound. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Brookgreen Gardens, SC.[13]

Paintings [edit]

  • Sir Paul Girolami, former CEO, Glaxo PLC. Oil on canvas, life size. London, England.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Caneris. Oil on canvas, life size, from life. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Awards [edit]

Frudakis was one of the youngest sculptors ever nominated for membership in the prestigious National Sculpture Society.[14] Nominated by Walker Hancock and Donald DeLue, Frudakis quickly advanced to Fellow, winning the President’s Prize, the Gold Medal, and nearly all the other awards at the Society’s annual juried exhibitions. He was also one of the youngest sculptors to become an Academician at the National Academy of Design.

In 1990, Frudakis was invited to participate in Japan’s Third Rodin Grand Prize Exhibition, where he won the Hakone Award at Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum.[15] The Museum purchased a cast of Frudakis’s sculpture Reaching.[16]

Tributes [edit]

Duane Hanson:

“ In an age when lack of self-discipline, quality control, personal integrity, and meaningful communication in a work of art have largely been sacrificed for momentary attention-getting manipulations, it is a joy to observe an artist such as Zenos Frudakis consistently produce works that are based on time tested traditions of beauty and form, yet have great contemporary significance.[17] ”

Gallery [edit]

Exhibitions [edit]

See also [edit]

Further reading [edit]

  • Appelbaum, David, and Mel Thompson, editors. World Philosophy. Vega, 2002, pp. 250–51.
  • Boyne, Walter J., Rosalie Frudakis, Katherine Jaeger, et al. The United States Air Force Memorial Honor Guard, A Sculpture by Zenos Frudakis. Techni Press, 2007.
  • Dunhoff, Richard, and Philip H. Wagner. Philadelphia, A Photographic Portrait. Twin Lights Publishers, 2004, p. 14.
  • Goode, James M. Washington Sculpture. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
  • Gordon, Robert, and Tom Burgoyne. Movin' On Up. MidAtlantic Press, 2004, pp. 264–64.

References [edit]

  1. ^ Robin R. Salmon, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (Brookgreen Gardens, 1993), v. 2, pp. 188-91.
  2. ^ a b The Lotos Experience, The Tradition Continues (Lotos Club, 1995), pp. 34-35.
  3. ^ Third Rodin Grand Prize Exhibit, The Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum, Hakone Open Air Museum, Embassies of Greece, Spain, United Kingdom and British Consul, United States, West Germany, 1990, pp. 27-28.
  4. ^ When an artist is voted into membership in the National Academy the Academy accepts a work of art from that artist; Frudakis's work was Sheila, a life-size bronze bust.
  5. ^ Gene Freedman, "The Unveiling of a Memorial," USIA World, April 1989, pp. 10-11. See also "Hope and Glory," Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday March 12, 1989, cover and pp. 4H-5H; "Martin Luther King Jr Is Remembered," Herald International Tribune, January 17, 1989, front page; and "Bust of Dr. King," Washington Post, January 17, 1989, p. 1.
  6. ^ Sarah Blackman, "Sculpting a Life" (feature article on Frudakis), The Pennsylvania Gazette, Class of '82, November/December 2002, p. 3.
  7. ^ a b Col. Walter Boyne, Soaring to Glory, The United States Air Force Memorial (for the Air Force Memorial Foundation by the Donning Company, 2007), Chapter 7, "A Perfect Partnership," pp. 80-93. See also "Guard Honored," The Academy Spirit, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, v. 47, no. 40 (October 5, 2007), p. 1.
  8. ^ Art Business News, September 2001, front page photograph.
  9. ^ "Mayoral Monument Emerges," Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday September 27, 1998, front page. See also Cherie Kemper-Starner, "Rizzo Comes to Life in Bronze," Philadelphia Inquirer (City & Region), December 2, 1997, pp. B1 and B6; and Murray Dubin, "Frank Rizzo, Still Larger Than Life," Philadelphia Inquirer (New Jersey & Region), December 27, 1998, pp. B1 and B4.
  10. ^ Jean Henry, "Contemporary Figurative Sculpture," The National Sculpture Society Celebrates the Figure (National Sculpture Society, 1987), pp. 52-53.
  11. ^ Lee Pace, The Spirit of Pinehurst (Pinehurst Resort, 2007), pp. 86-87. See also World Golf Courses (Chartwell Books, 2007), pp. 144-45.
  12. ^ Grace Glueck, "Capturing C.E.O.'s for Posterity," New York Times Magazine, December 3, 1989; and Carolyn Torcellini, "Lest They Forget," Forbes, June 26, 1989.
  13. ^ Robin Salmon, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (Brookgreen Gardens, 1993), v. 2, pp. 188-91.
  14. ^ National Sculpture Society. "Fellows of NSS". Retrieved 2012-03-30. 
  15. ^ Third Rodin Grand Prize Exhibit, The Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum, Hakone Open Air Museum, Embassies of Greece, Spain, United Kingdom and British Consul, United States, West Germany, 1990, pp. 27-28.
  16. ^ Donald Reynolds, Masters of American Sculpture (Abbeville Press, 1993), p. 250.
  17. ^ Personal letter to Zenos Frudakis, dated 1990.
  18. ^ Citizens Bank Park. "Citizens Bank Park". Retrieved 2012-03-30. 
  19. ^ Carchidi, Sam (2004), "Four legends honored with statues", The Philadelphia Inquirer (April 13): F8 
  20. ^ Save Outdoor Sculptures! (1993). "Reaching, (sculpture)". SOS!. Smithsonian. Retrieved 3 November 2010. 
  21. ^ Fleisher Museum. Masterworks of American Sculpture, 1999.

External links [edit]

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