May 13, 2008

NSS News

Posted :: Apr 30, 2008
NEIL ESTERN AWARDED the Medal of Honor National Sculputre Society's highest award, The Medal of Honor, will go to Neil Estern, FNSS.

A native New Yorker, Neil Estern attended the Tyler School of Fine Arts of Temple University where he earned his BFA and BS in Education. Following college, he spent several years in Italy studying independently and working.

As well as being a Fellow of NSS, Estern served as its president for two terms: 1994 - 1996 and again in 2007 - 2008. Estern is also a National Academician and an Artist Member of the Century Club.


Estern's work is among the most celebrated in the country. Some of his more notable commissions are The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (Washington, DC), Fiorello H. LaGuardia (New York, NY), John F. Kennedy (Brooklyn, NY), George Merrick (Coral Gables, FL) and Irving Berlin (New York, NY). His work is included in the museum collections of the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC); The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY); and the Pepper Museum (Tallahassee, FL). Estern’s portraits of famous politicians and other newsmakers have graced the covers of major magazines including Time and Life, bringing further recognition to Estern's talents.

In addition to the Medal of Honor, Estern has won several awards at NSS Annual Exhibitions, including the Lindsey Morris Prize (‘84) and the Mildred Vincent Prize ('88 & '92). Estern earned the Dessie Greer Prize (‘90); The Daniel Chester French Gold Medal ('97); and the Maynard Award ('99) from the National Academy. In 1996, Estern was presented with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Award for his Fiorello LaGuardia statue.
Posted :: Apr 30, 2008
JUDY FOX AWARDED THE ALEX J. ETTL GRANT This year, the Alex J. Ettl Grant will be presented to sculptor Judy Fox. Fox received her undergraduate degree in sculpture from Yale University before achieving her Masters in Art History at New York University in 1983. In between, she benefited by studying at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and at the Ecole Superior Des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. In 1985, Fox had her humble beginnings in a group show on Manhattan’s Lower East side. In the twenty plus years since, her work has been exhibited widely and to the far corners of the world including Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Hawaii. A pioneer in contemporary figuration, Fox works exclusively in ceramics and her life-size portraits are all hand glazed and painted.

Fox has received two NEA grants and earned residencies at Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony as well as a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Fox’s work can be found in private and public collections including: California Center for the Arts (Escondido, CA); Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY); Mint Museum, (Charlotte, NC); Sammlung Essl (Klostermeuberg, Austria); and City College of New York, (New York, NY). She has been the subject of several magazine profiles in the New York Times, Le Monde, Village Voice and Black Book. Fox is represented by PPOW gallery in New York and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Europe.

The Alex J. Ettl Grant is a certificate and an unrestricted cash prize of $4,000 which is awarded to a sculptor for a meritorious body of work. The recipient may not be an elected sculptor member of the National Sculpture Society. The jury is always composed of three prominent sculptors who are Fellows of the National Sculpture Society. This year they were Richard Blake, FNSS; Jill Burkee, FNSS; and Michelle Langlais, FNSS.
Posted :: Apr 30, 2008
FREDERIK MEIJER RECEIVES THE HERBERT ADAMS MEMORIAL MEDAL The Herbert Adams Memorial Award will be presented to Frederik Meijer for his outstanding service to American Sculpture. The honor was named for the Society’s fourth president, Herbert Adams (1858-1945), a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, and first presented in 1947.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park is an open air museum residing on 125 acres of land in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The brainchild of businessman and philanthropist Frederik Meijer, the park opened in 2002 with the mission "to promote the enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of the gardens, sculpture, the natural environment and the arts." At the time, 25 sculptures were sited on the grounds. Today the gardens now boast more than 160 works in its permanent collection. Divided into two areas, works by Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, Nina Akamu, Marshall Fredericks, Henry Moore, Roy Lichenstein and many more, populate the Sculpture Park and Gallery and the Garden Trails and Conservatory. The natural landscaping and horticultural designs of the grounds complement the integrity of the sculpture and the sculptors ideas, while allowing visitors the pleasure of viewing it in an organic environment. Meijer’s generosity to the arts and his championing of sculpture in particular have earned him the respect of artists everywhere and the honor of 2008’s Herbert Adams Memorial Medal.
Posted :: Apr 28, 2008
Henry Hering Award The Henry Hering Award will be presented to the design team responsible for the First National Bank of Omaha Sculpture Monument. The monument, which extends 4 city blocks in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, was the creation of sculptor Kent Ullberg and the architectural teams of Leo A.Daly and JVR and Associates.

The First National Bank, an Omaha institution owned by the Lauritzen family for over 150 years, has been important to the economic and cultural growth of the city. In celebration of the bank and the town itself, Ullberg, Daly and JVR Associates were hired to create a monument that would unify the bank’s 9-block campus and express the spirit of wilderness most likely encountered by the settlers in the early 1800s. Ullberg’s sculptures of wild geese and bison intersect with the modern architecture, reminding visitors of the natural history of the midwest and the progress of the urban landscape.

Highlights of the monument include: 8 bronze bison stampeding along the sidewalk; a large water fountain with 58 Canada geese taking flight; geese in flight attached to 18’ bronze trees, a traffic signal, the corner of a building, light poles and in full flight in the glass atrium of the Bank’s Tower. The different uses of bronze and stainless steel signify the transition from the 1800s, to the present, and the future.

The Henry Hering Award is presented as the occasion warrants for outstanding collaboration between architect, owner, and sculptor in the distinguished use of sculpture in an architectural project.The awards jury looks for excellence in an architectural project in which the architect collaborated with a sculptor and the owner of a site. A winning entry receives three engraved relief medals and three hand-lettered citations - one each for architect, owner and sculptor.