Frederick Hart: The Complete Works

by Donald B. Kuspit, Frederick Turner

Book by Kuspit, Donald, Turner, Frederick

Genres: Art

313 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2007

About the author

Donald Kuspit is an American art critic, poet, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of art history and philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and former professor of art history at the School of Visual Arts. Kuspit is one of America's most distinguished art critics.

Reviews

[Mikey B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Three Soldiers" at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC, 1983


This lavish book contains the complete works of the sculptor Frederick Hart. Perhaps his most famous sculpture “Three Soldiers” is at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. He also has several sculptures at the Washington National Cathedral; “Ex Nihilo” being the most distinguished and dominates the front door entranceway.



"Ex Niholo" Washington National Cathedral, 1982




detail - "Ex Niholo" Washington National Cathedral, 1982


Frederick Hart was the first to use the very striking technique of acrylic resin for some of his sculptures.



Visitation, clear acrylic resin, 1989




Eye of the Flame, clear acrylic resin, 1986


Some of the essays in this book are overly “art philosophical”. I would have preferred more on the background and inspiration for his works; there is some of this, but not enough.

One of the essays went into a diatribe against Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. I thought this became too personal and unnecessary (but Maya was also given to making animosities as depicted in the book A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial).

Frederick Hart was religious – he converted to Roman Catholicism so many of his sculptures have a theological grounding. But there is a lot of nudity! I did find the bodies of the women in his sculptures overly idealized (and the men too) – after looking at their bodies over a few hundred pages they tended to look alike, even though very beautiful. One cannot but admire the technique and expressiveness, more so in the faces of his subject matter.

I am not quite sure why he made a sculpture of Strum Thurmond who was an ardent segregationist and racist (but not in the bedroom I am told). He also did one of Jimmy Carter.

The pictures in this book are first-rate and well illustrate the magnificent classical technique of Frederick Hart.

[Mario Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hart's works are such an inspiration.