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Augusta Stylianou Gallery 
Frederick Elliott Hart (June 7, 1943 in Atlanta, Georgia - August 13, 1999 in Baltimore, Maryland) was an American sculptor, best known for his public monuments and works of art in bronze, marble, and clear acrylic (a technique he coined as "sculpting with light").
American master sculptor Frederick Hart is recognized for creating work that is at once traditional in its adherence to the human figure, radical in its sensuality, and innovative in its materials—which has brought about a resurgence of interest in the human figure and in the idea of beauty in contemporary American art. He followed the medieval tradition of apprenticing to a master stone carver and invented and patented an acrylic method of sculpture, which he described as sculpting with light. Michael Novak, author of Frederick Hart: Changing Tides, wrote in 2004, “The work of Frederick Hart is changing the world of art,”[1] vindicating the artist’s strong belief that with the new century would come changing tides in the style, form, and direction of the arts. Frederick died in 1999, two days after doctors diagnosed him with lung cancer.[2] National Monuments Washington National Cathedral Hart gained international stature for his The Creation Sculptures on the west façade of Washington National Cathedral, which include three tympana Ex Nihilo (Out of Nothing), Creation of Day and Creation of Night, and three trumeau figures, St. Peter, St. Paul and Adam carved in Indiana limestone. The cathedral, located in Washington, D.C. is the sixth largest Gothic cathedral in the world. The works were commissioned in 1974, and dedicated between 1978 and 1984. Vietnam Veterans Memorial One of the most visited monuments in Washington, D.C. is Hart’s heroic bronze statue The Three Soldiers, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Presidential and Senate Hart is also represented in the U.S. Senate by the heroic marble statue of Senator Richard Russell in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building; the bronze bust of Senator Strom Thurmond, installed in the Strom Thurmond Room of the Capitol Building; and the marble bust of J. Danforth Quayle created for the Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Collection. Hart was also commissioned to create the James Earl Carter Presidential Statue in bronze installed at the Georgia State House, Atlanta. Innovation Hart pioneered the use of clear acrylic resin to create cast figurative sculptures. He patented the process by which one clear acrylic sculpture was embedded within another. In 1997, Hart presented a unique casting of 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.” Frederick Hart was articulate in describing the passion and vision that drove him to create such works of beauty. He 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.” Honors Hart was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government. The proclamation signed by President George W. Bush on November 17, 2004 states the following: “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.” This distinction places him in the ranks of the most distinguished American artists of the twentieth century. Classic traditions - Centerists Hart's work uniquely contrasted in the late 20th century art world dominated by Modernist and Post-Modernist art movements. He championed the realistic representation of the human form, and believed in a more traditionally defined moral responsibility of the artist. His works were highly imitative of classic art traditions, but he worked in new medium materials made possible by modern technology. In his last years he began to summon to his estate a cadre of like-minded souls, a handful of artists, poets and philosophers, a dedicated little derrire garde (to borrow a term from the composer Stefania de Kenessey) to gird for the battle to take art back from the Modernists. They called themselves the Centerists.[3] In his lifetime, Hart engaged in the discussions of art’s philosophical and sociological significance. It is not the first case in art history that an artist's work was either controversial or invisible to critics while gaining a place in the art of eons. Harts work rose almost unnoticed to the highest possible longevity and renown, carved in stone on the National Cathedral and standing as national monuments.[4] 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."[5] Frederick Hart quotes * "Art must touch our lives, our fears and cares – evoke our dreams and give hope to the darkness."
* The Three Soldiers sculpture - Located at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Dedicated in 1984.
* Hart was awarded a patent for inventing a unique process of embedding one acrylic sculpture within another
1. ^ Michael Novak,Frederick Hart: Changing Tides, 2005, Hudson Hills Press Sources * Frederick Turner and Michael Novak, Frederick Hart: Changing Tides, 2005, Hudson Hills Press ISBN 155595233x
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