Frederick Hart is recognized worldwide as the most prominent figurative sculptor of the last century. His monuments, commissions, innovations and collected sculpture have changed the way the world has seen twentieth century art. What is more, he changed the way we THINK about beauty itself. "Art must touch our lives, our fears and cares; evoke our dreams and give hope to the darkness." He took the notion possibly best stated by playwright Tom Stoppard who said "Innovation without skill, gives you 'MODERN ART'", and rejected this nihilism when developing the techniques that would earn him the title the "Rodin of our Century".

But, you probably do not know his name.

Beginning his life in Atlanta, and his career in Washington D.C., Hart was the epitome of the starving artist. He saw that he was spiritually descended by famed figurative masters such as August St. Gaudens and Daniel Chester French, but he failed to realize the fame these artists enjoyed. He toted around Dupont Circle, sculpting girlfriends, kids and buddies but not truly finding his calling. He became despondent with the lack of skill on the "modern" art scene, and more the notion that we had forgotten what it meant for something to be beautiful, timeless and everlasting.
He then discovered the Washington National Cathedral, the seventh largest cathedral in the world, and the only place in the world he could truly surround himself with the Italian master stone carvers that would make him the master. He toted tools, fetched coffee and finally ingratiated himself into the cadre of stone carvers, whose impermeable ranks were so hard to breach. The head master himself, Roger Morigi, a temperamental Italian, with a penchant for the "tough-love" way of teaching, took him as an apprentice.
In 1971, Hart found out about the competition for the commission of the sculpture to adorn the west facade of the cathedral with a sculpture based on creation. Hart, inspired by the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit theologian and philosopher, said that mankind is in a constant state of becoming conscious of itself. With this thought in mind he spent 2 and one-half years creating what became the most prominent religious sculpture of our day. "Ex Nihilo" (Out of Nothing), an eight figure, larger than life, swirling mass, which notoriously gained recent recognition as the subject of the lawsuit against the makers of the movie "The Devil's Advocate", which Hart won. The sculpture was thirteen years in stone carving, and finally dedicated in 1982. Hart created the six major sculptures on the West facade, giving him a similar historical place among masters such as Bernini, Michelangelo and Rodin.
Hart said, upon it's completion "my life's work is complete, my destiny fulfilled"
Once complete Hart looked through the art journals and literary magazines for some mention of this masterwork, none came. Hart hoped he would find an article panning it, just to let him know that someone was watching figurative work. No one was.
At the same time, artist Christo created "Surrounded Islands" in Biscayne Bay, Miami (surrounding islands with pink fabric) which the public loathed, and the art community embraced. Hart's sculpture was ignored because it was it the tradition of the old school, and therefore offered no new ideas.
During this cycle, Hart heard about a commission to be awarded for the dedication of a new "Vietnam Veterans Memorial" to be placed on the Mall in front of the Washington Monument. The requisite element was that all 58,000 dead must be named. Hart entered a sculpture containing both a wall with the listed dead, as well as a medic running toward a wounded soldier. The board voting on the monument (which contained no veterans) awarded the commission was awarded to a 21-year-old Yale University architecture student, Maya Ying Lin. Lin's design was a minimalist black granite wall, shiny, deeply cut into the Earth. This set off a series of debates that occupied the United States with bitter debate. The problem that veterans (and Hart) had with it, was that it lacked a human face. How would such a wall translate to a society one hundred years from now? Once we are dead and gone, would it still have any impact, like the sculptures of civil war heroes? Vets called it the "great black gash of shame and sorrow". Hart simply called it "a telephone book listing of dead people". Funding for the project was withheld till a suitable solution could be reached. The idea was proposed that a figurative element be placed near the monument, at its apex. Hart was given the commission, and altered the plan. Instead of placing his "Three Servicemen" at the apex, place them approximately 400 feet from the wall; looking, as one Vet said "for their own names". This satiated both sides and quelled the debate.
Hart mentioned that the monument is one of the hardest places for him to visit, because after absorbing all of the interviews with GI's, and the controversy surrounding the monument itself, he had to synthesize it into what it became, in his words "the most effective ensemble monument in the United States." At the "Three Servicemen" unveiling, architect Maya Ying Lin approached him and asked if it hurt the models to pull the molds off of them. It was foreign to her to think that a sculptor could actually SCULPT figures so perfect in detail and form. This monument has become the most visited in Washington D.C. and the "Three Servicemen" are some of the most recognized faces in modern sculpture. Yet, when Hart checked those same sculpture journals and literary magazines, no mention was made of these overly sentimental, hero figures. Only the genius of the minimalist wall. Hart was despondent, but not done.
In the early 70's, after sculpting in stone (the stone age) and bronze (the bronze age), Hart turned his attention to Light. He believed we were entering an age of enlightenment, "The age of Light". So he began developing the uses of clear acrylic resin, to "Sculpt in light". Harking back to the teachings of Chardin, and his vision of creation, Hart created a new legacy with his development of acrylic as a figurative media. The Children of Ex Nihilo were born. After releasing his first sculpture in the "Age of Light" collection, in 1984, Hart's vision became clearer and he began to realize the artistic and commercial success of his work. Subsequent works, such as "Memoir", and "Dance of Life" experimented with imbedding one acrylic sculpture within another, which Hart patented. The mystery of this technique still confounds viewers and technicians to this day. Through commercial success and public monuments, works for Pope John Paul II such as "Cross of the Millennium", Hart still surprisingly enjoyed little critical acclaim.

On August 13, 1999 at the age of 55, Hart died of lung cancer that was diagnosed only two days before. His career, now having a finite beginning and a finite end is looked upon in retrospect, not as single works, but as a body of work; a total idea. What we are finding is that Hart changed our "zeitgeist", (spirit of the age) from one that vilified beauty, into one that embraced the things that are beautiful in life. As a member of the "Centerists", a group of poets, theologians, musicians, artists and those dedicated to making us rethink the beautiful, Hart brought us back to the lost items of our existence.
"The ability to have faith; to sustain hope; to feel the transforming power of beauty; and the revel in the innocence of the world around us".
An article included in the "New York Times" magazine at the beginning of 2000 went miles in explaining who this artist was, what he offered to us and what he left us. Of all the articles written about Hart posthumously, none had more of an effect on people than this one. Translated into over thirty languages and reprinted worldwide, the article brought Hart the recognition that he always relished. The author of the article was Tom Wolfe, author of "A Man in Full" and friend of Mr. Hart. He explained to people what it was to be an ignored master, and what it meant to be a humble servant of the cause, one of beauty and timelessness.


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"I believe that art has a moral responsibility, that it must pursue something higher than common man. It must be an enriching, ennobling and vital partner in the public pursuit of civilization. It should be a majestic presence in everyday life just as it was in the past."

These are the words of Frederick Hart who has been described as one of America's greatest representational artist. He has gone completely against the grain of the contemporary art world; substance and beauty are the chief criteria of his work. "My work isn't art for art's sake, it's about life. I have no patience with obscure or unintelligible art - I want to be understood."

Born in Atlanta, the traditions of Southern country life have remained with Frederick Hart long after his youthful years spent in South Carolina. Continuing that tradition, in 1987 he built a country home on 135 acres of open farmland and rolling hills in the Piedmont region of northern Virginia. The estate, named Chesley in remembrance of his late sister, epitomizes Hart's deeply held beliefs about beauty, truth, tradition, and permanence. He frequently hosted gatherings of the "Centerists," a group of artists, poets, philosophers, and others who shared his vision and sought to exchange ideas.

His life at Chesley was a far cry from the young, aspiring artist who applied for a job at the Washington National Cathedral in 1967 to learn the skill of stone carving. Hart recalls, "The Cathedral became a magical place for me, a place outside of this century. The wonderful Italian stone carvers who worked there were the last of a generation, a link back to the major American architectural works of the early 1900's, to buildings like the Supreme Court, The Federal Triangle, and Grand Central Station, as well as to the great American sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French."

By 1971 Hart was ready to leave the Cathedral. For the next three years he worked in his own unheated studio, "almost starving to death" as he sketched his ideas for the Cathedral's international competition to commission the design for a series of "Creation" sculptures for its main facade. Hart remembers, "It was to be a contemporary idea of Creation, a vision of an unfolding universe." Inspired by Pierre Tellhard de Chardin's writings on science and theology, Hart envisioned a great allegorical work which would evoke the heroic struggle for awakening and consciousness. The selection committee for the Cathedral was impressed with the power and vision of his scale model studies and in 1974 awarded him the project. He was thirty-one.

The statue of Three Soldiers which he created for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the nation's capitol has in Hart's words, "a wholly unnerving, enigmatic, existential quality which I think is very appropriate for the Vietnam War." The fighting men portray the veterans' bond of love and sacrifice and mutual devotion as they stare at the wall, almost as if they are searching for their own names. The artist expresses the concept behind his design: "I see the wall as a kind of ocean, a sea of sacrifice that is overwhelming and nearly incomprehensible in its sweep of names...I place these figures upon the shore of that sea, gazing upon it, standing vigil before it, reflecting the human face of it, the human heart." Cast in bronze, this historic sculpture - now one of America's most famous sculptures - was dedicated in November, 1984, at a major ceremony attended by President Ronald Reagan and more than 100,000 veterans.

In 1993 Frederick Hart received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina for his "ability to create art that uplifts the human spirit, his commitment to the ideal that art must renew its moral authority by 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."

On January 24, 1996 a white Italian marble state of Richard B. Russell, Jr. was unveiled in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building. The new statue created by Hart over a two year period honors the distinguished senator from Georgia who served from 1933 until his death in 1971. This contribution to our nation's capital stands as the focal piece in the rotunda entrance of the building, which was named in honor of Senator Russell in 1972.

Hart's more intimate clear acrylic sculptures (he pioneered the use of acrylics in figurative sculpture, a technique which he calls "sculpting with light") are inventive and revolutionary; physical and sensuous, yet spiritual; direct, yet graceful and subtle. His figures are classic while his medium of clear acrylic is most modern and technologically advanced.

The world lost a master sculptor when Frederick Hart passed away on August 13, 1999 after discovering he had lung cancer.

Frederick Hart's studio continues to be filled with sunlight, completed plasters of his monumental sculptures and an array of works in that were in progress. Though an integral part of Chesley, this creative space is a separate building in a secluded hollow near his home, an enclave of serenity apart from the urban clatter of Washington. The body of work he has created over more than twenty years heralds a new age for contemporary art, "one in which figurative beauty, embodiment of values, and spiritual enlightenment are the ways in which we measure significance."