Frederick Hart (sculptor)

Early life

Hart was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Joanna Elliott (an unsuccessful actress) and Frederick William Hart, who served in the United States Navy during World War II. His older brother, Frederick William, died as an infant. The Hart family was Presbyterian. His mother contracted scarlet fever and died in 1945 when Frederick was two; he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother and aunt in South Carolina. His father married Myrtis Mildred Hailey in 1947 after being discharged by the Navy, and the family returned to Atlanta, where his father worked as a newspaper reporter. Half-sister Chesley Hart was born in 1949 and brother and sister became close. The Hart family moved to Virginia, near Washington, D.C., in 1956. Young Hart loved to read but had no interest in school. After failing ninth grade, he was sent to South Carolina to live with his Aunt Essie and repeat the year. The principal challenged him to take the A.C.T. to show how little he knew. After achieving a near-perfect score, the principal helped the sixteen-year-old Hart apply and gain admission to the University of South Carolina in 1959. After a short time at South Carolina, Hart participated in a 1961 protest during the Civil Rights Movement with black students. He was arrested, jailed, and kicked out of school. When informed that the Ku Klux Klan was looking for him, he moved to Washington, D.C. In 1965, his sister Chesley was diagnosed with leukemia, and she died the next year. While grieving for his sister, Hart "stumble[d] into a sculpture class at the Corcoran School of Art and [was] blown away."

Sculpture

Hart worked briefly at the Giorgio Gianetti Architectural Plaster Studio in 1966, and assisted sculptor Felix de Weldon before taking a job as a mail clerk at the Washington National Cathedral, where he convinced master stone carver Roger Morigi to offer him an apprenticeship in stone carving. His 1969 work titled, "Family" expressed his feelings about Chesley's premature death at age 16. Within five years, he achieved the title of stone carver.

In 1975 Hart won the design competition for an ensemble of sculptures dramatizing the creation story for the facade of the cathedral. The central tympanum, titled "Ex Nihilo", or "Out of Nothing," represents human figures emerging out of chaos. Hart also designed the two flanking tympana for the facade, "Creation of Day" and "Creation of Night", and statues of St. Paul, St. Peter, and Adam. Hart was the sculptor of the statue "Three Servicemen" (also known as "The Three Soldiers"), a controversial addition to Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Hart became involved in two lawsuits concerning his work, including a suit he filed accusing Warner Brothers and TimeWarner of copyright infringement for the appropriation of "Ex Nihilo" in the 1997 film The Devil's Advocate; the suit was settled out of court. Hart claimed the film's sculpture infringed on his rights under copyright laws. After a federal judge ruled that the film's video release would be delayed until the case went to trial unless a settlement was reached, Warner Bros. agreed to edit the scene for future releases and to attach stickers to unedited videotapes to indicate there was no relation between the sculpture in the film and Hart's work.

Personal life

After being awarded the cathedral commission, Hart did much of his work at night, and spent afternoons near Dupont Circle drinking coffee, debating issues and flirting. One day, a beautiful woman caught his eye, and he began to look for her every day. Finally, he introduced himself, and asked her to pose for the figure of Woman in "Ex Nihilo." She agreed, and became a recurring figure in Hart's work for the rest of his career. He married Lindy Lain on December 1, 1978 in a civil ceremony; first son Frederick Lain Hart was born June 21, 1980, and second son Alexander Thaddeus Hart was born January 7, 1983.

While doing research for the cathedral project, Hart studied the Book of Genesis and the story of the Creation for inspiration. Tom Wolfe suggests that Hart fell in love with God. Hart became a Roman Catholic and regarded his talent as a gift from God. On June 2, 1980, Frederick and Lindy Hart's marriage was blessed at the Saint Matthew’s Cathedral.

Hart died in 1999, two days after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital diagnosed him with lung cancer.

Resin sculpture

Hart pioneered the use of clear acrylic resin to create cast figurative sculptures. He patented a process in which one clear acrylic sculpture was embedded within another. In 1997, Hart presented a unique casting called "The Cross of the Millennium" to Pope John Paul II in a private ceremony at the Vatican in Rome. When it was unveiled Pope John Paul II called this sculpture “a profound theological statement for our day.”

Hart said, “I believe that art has a moral responsibility, that it must pursue something higher than itself. Art must be a part of life. It must exist in the domain of the 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.”

Michael Novak, author of Frederick Hart: Changing Tides, wrote in 2004, “The work of Frederick Hart is changing the world of art,” referring to the artist’s conviction that the new century would bring changes to the style, form, and direction of the arts.

Honors

In 2004, Hart was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the U.S. government. The proclamation, signed by President George W. Bush, states: “For his important body of work—including the Washington National Cathedral's Creation Sculptures and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial's Three Soldiers—which heralded a new age for contemporary public art.” Harts was awarded an honorary degree from the University of South Carolina and received the Henry Hering Award of the National Sculpture Society in 1987 and Presidential Design Excellence Award in 1988. He was a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1985 to 1989.

Classic traditions – Centerists

Hart's work contrasted with the Modernist and Post-Modernist art movements which dominated the 20th century. He championed the realistic representation of the human form, and believed in the moral responsibility of the artist. His works reflected classic art traditions, but he worked in new materials made possible by modern technology.

In his last years he became the center of a group of like-minded artists, poets and philosophers, who called themselves the Centerists. The Centerists were determined to return art to a figural, pre-Modernist aesthetic.

In a memorial tribute to the sculptor at the Senate, Reverend Stephen Happel said, "The [National Cathedral] facade sculptures reach out from the center to the edges of day and night and extend themselves into the city and our world. They proselytize; they preach; they evangelize about how the world could be if values of beauty and truth were embraced."

Quotes

Notable works

Awards and accolades