Zenos Frudakis

Zenos Frudakis

Frudakis, posed with his statue of former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo
Born 1951 (age 60–61)
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

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

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

Poetic/philosophical

Public sculpture

Sports sculpture

Small sculpture

Relief sculpture

Animal sculpture

Paintings

Awards

Frudakis was one of the youngest sculptors ever nominated for membership in the prestigious National Sculpture Society. 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

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

Exhibitions

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Robin R. Salmon, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (Brookgreen Gardens, 1993), v. 2, pp. 188-91.
  2. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ The Lotos Experience, The Tradition Continues (Lotos Club, 1995), pp. 34-35.
  11. ^ Jean Henry, "Contemporary Figurative Sculpture," The National Sculpture Society Celebrates the Figure (National Sculpture Society, 1987), pp. 52-53.
  12. ^ Lee Pace, The Spirit of Pinehurst (Pinehurst Resort, 2007), pp. 86-87. See also World Golf Courses (Chartwell Books, 2007), pp. 144-45.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Robin Salmon, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (Brookgreen Gardens, 1993), v. 2, pp. 188-91.
  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. ^ Fleisher Musem. Masterworks of American Sculpture, 1999.

External links