StudioEIS
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StudioEIS (pronounced "Studio Ice") is a sculpture and design studio in Brooklyn, New York, USA. It specializes in "visual storytelling" — the production of figurative sculpture in bronze, stone, and resin for narrative exhibitions at cultural institutions, museums, and corporations worldwide.
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[edit] History
StudioEIS was founded in 1977 by New York City natives Ivan Schwartz (BFA Boston University College of Fine Arts) and Elliot Schwartz (BFA California Institute of the Arts, MFA Yale University). It pioneered the production of human figurative sculptures for visual storytelling and narrative scenarios within the museum community during the 1970s. When the company was founded, most museum displays were "peopled" by mass-produced mannequin-like figures. In the face of growing resistance to such figures and for financial reasons, many museums eliminated staff positions for those sculptors who had formerly assisted in the creation of exhibitions. During the same period, the American Bicentennial led to a renewed interest in history, and dozens of small museums were established across the country to address topics as diverse as civil rights, sports, and Native American history. This created the initial impetus for StudioEIS's work.
Museums large and small began to out-source the creation of displays to exhibition designers, who called upon StudioEIS's expertise in creating life-like human sculptures to tell these important stories in a vivid and engaging way. StudioEIS's early commissions, for institutions such as the National Civil Rights Museum and the American Museum of Natural History, were life-sized figurative sculptures for exhibitions in history, technology, and anthropology museums. Meticulous research, skill, and devotion to detail have ensured accuracy in all aspects of each sculpture.
As its reputation grew, StudioEIS began to collaborate not only with museums but with architects, industrial designers, scenic designers, restaurant designers, and hotel/casino designers. Among its corporate clients are Sony, the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nike's flagship stores in Portland and Chicago, and The Discovery Channel. StudioEIS works are on display in locations as far-flung as Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, and Italy.
The studio became prominent and especially renowned for its portrait sculptures and bronze public works, which have included sculptures of our nation’s icons as diverse as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Elvis Presley, and the forty-two bronze Founding Fathers at the National Constitution Center, which may be the largest bronze sculpture project of its type in American history.
StudioEIS found unique and innovative methods for producing large numbers of figurative sculptures. Today the StudioEIS staff of ten to twenty sculptors, painters, costumers, researchers, model-makers and carpenters is supplemented by specialists in wax, wigs, and ocular reproduction, as well as metal fabrication and bronze casting. A project will often include the collaboration of scholars in anthropology, costume history, and forensic science. The figures of George Washington at ages 19, 45 and 57 that were unveiled at Mount Vernon in 2006 involved state-of-the-art forensic research and computer reconstruction.
[edit] Notable works
[edit] Social and cultural history
- The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN - 1991. Twenty-seven figures representing the history of the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 through 1968
- Elvis Presley sculpture, Honolulu, HI - 2007. Bronze
- Motown Cafe, Orlando, FL - 1998. Bronze
- Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA – 1997. Tonally painted historical figures for the "Art of the Gold Rush" and figures for the exhibition "California A Place, A People, A Dream"
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL - 1992. Fifteen figures depicting moments from the Civil Rights Movement
[edit] Anthropology
- Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashantucket, CT - 1997. One hundred eleven naturalistically painted Native American sculptures representing the history of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe
- Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT - 2002. Six figures and cast dwellings on the history of Machu Picchu for the exhibition "Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas"
- Milwaukee Public Museum - Native American Project, Milwaukee, WI - 1999. Thirty-six naturally painted figures of Pow-wow dancers
- American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, 1990. Construction of "King Mbunza," a completely articulated fiberglass figure for the artifact display in the "African Reflections" exhibit
- Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Museum, Anchorage, AK - 1985. Thirty-five figures representing the indigenous peoples of the region
[edit] American history
- Morristown Green, Morristown, NJ - 2007. Bronze figures of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette
- George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, Mount Vernon, VA - 2006. Forensically recreated wax figures of George Washington at ages 19, 45, and 57, plus four bronze portrait figures of George and Martha Washington and their grandchildren, portrait figures of Samuel Otis and Robert R. Livingston at Washington's inauguration, and two Peppers Ghosts of George Washington
- National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA - 2001. Forty-two bronze figures of the signers of the U.S. Constitution
- North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, NC - 2001. Historical bronze portrait figures
- Great Platte River Road Memorial Archway Museum, Kearney, NE - 2000. Sixteen historical figures and two oxen
- Lowell Heritage State Park, Lowell, MA - 1984. Sixteen 18th-c. figures depicting life in Lowell, where the Industrial Revolution began in America
[edit] Presidential libraries
- George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, TX - 2006. Faux-bronze portrait figure of George Bush, Sr.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY - 2003. Bronze portrait figures of Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt
- Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace, Yorba Linda, CA - 1990, 2002. Portrait figures of Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai for a traveling exhibit; ten portrait figures of world leaders who influenced President Nixon's life
- Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Kirksville, MO - 2001. Bronze portrait figures of Harry S. Truman
- Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, Austin, TX - 1991-1994. World War II figures
[edit] Sports history
- Puerto Rico Museum of Sports, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico - 2002-2006. Portrait figures of Crissy Fuentes, Roberto Clemente, Rafael Ramirez, and many other athletes
- Legacy Soccer Foundation, Orlando, FL - 2004. Bronze soccer player to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the World Cup
- National Collegiate Athletic Association Museum, Indianapolis, IN - 1999. Thirty-five athletic figures, including six bronze figures of the "flying wedge," for the new headquarters of the NCAA
[edit] Military history
* National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, GA – 2007-2008. Fifty military figures depicting the history of the U.S. Infantry
- National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, VA - 2006. Seventy-four realistically painted Marine Corps figures
- United States Army Aviation Museum, Fort Rucker, AL - 2005.
- Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Madison, WI - 1992. Over sixty military figures from the American Revolution to the Vietnam War
[edit] Science and technology
- Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, CA - 2006. Portrait of Albert Einstein
- Virginia Air and Space Museum Center, Hampton Roads Historical Center, Hampton Roads, VA - 1991. Thirty historical and contemporary figures
- National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC - 1978-1983. Life-size portrait of Benjamin Franklin with reproduction of the clothing worn to celebrate the ascension of the Montgolfier Balloon in Paris in 1783; three figures for "The Golden Age of Flight," a racing tableau
- Cheng Chung Aviation Museum, Taipei, Taiwan - 1980. Two aviation dioramas
[edit] Further reading
[edit] On the forensic reconstruction of George Washington at Mount Vernon
- "Masterworks: A Presidential Cast," by Ruth Katz. New York Home Magazine.
- "Coming Soon to Mount Vernon, 3 Georges," by Warren E. Leary. New York Times 2/17/2006
- "Putting a Face on the First President," by Jeffrey H. Schwartz. Scientific American, February 2006.
- "Founding Fathers, Large as Life," by Rita Reif. New York Times 11/24/2002.
[edit] On the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia
- "NCC Commissions Sculptures of Founders to Depict Defining Moment." Signature (the newsletter of the National Constitution Center), Fall 2001.
- "History Is Remade, One Bronzed Gentleman After Another," by Andy Newman. New York Times 7/4/2001.
- "Madame Tussaud These Two Are Not," by Mary Raffalli. New York Times 5/2/2001.
- "Founding Faces," by Diana Marder. Philadelphia Inquirer 5/26/2002.
[edit] General
- "Hiding Behind the Light, in Plain Sight," by Bonnie Schwartz. New York Times 1/13/2000.
- "Art Flourishes on a Grimy Brooklyn Waterfront," by Kennedy Fraser. New York Times 10/27/1997.
