"SCULPTORS-FOUR, National Sculpture Society" 

Bacsi, Casanova, Stewart, Svenson

 October 14 - January 21, 2002

   

 

The CCAA Museum of Art

The North Wing of the J. Filippi Winery

12467 Base Line Road

Rancho Cucamonga, California 91739

www.CCAAMuseum.org

  (909) 463-3733

 

 

 

The work of four members of the National Sculpture Society (NSS), the prestigious organization of American Sculptors, goes on display in Gallery II at the CCAA Museum of Art on October 14.  The show of sculptural art by Bela Bacsi, Aldo Casanova, Albert Stewart, and John Svenson promises to be a rare opportunity to view the work of four internationally acclaimed sculptors.

Curated by John Svenson, this show represents the highest level of American twentieth century sculpture.  The artists have received more honors and awards than there is room to list; complete "bios" are available at the museum.

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Bela Bacsi  -  Bela Bacsi was born in Gyor, Hungary in 1950.  His immediate family came to the United States following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.  Four uncles and cousins left behind in Hungary were stone carvers in the family monument company; therefore, his mother was not surprised when her young son took an interest in carving whatever materials he found at hand.

Self-taught in sculpture, in 1978 Bacsi traveled to Pietrasanta, Italy, where he obtained employment at the Studio Ferdinando Palla marble studios and was assigned to architectural ornamental projects.  He returned to the United States and worked as an architectural ornamental master designer at Fischer and Jirouch Architectural Ornamentation, and as a bronze foundry man at the nationally acclaimed Studio Foundry, both in Cleveland, before opening his own sculpture studios.

Bacsi is a Professional Sculptor Member of the National Sculpture Society, New York City, the oldest organization of professional sculptors in the United States.  Founded in 1893 by Daniel Chester French, Augustus St. Gaudens, Stanford White, et al., its membership has been responsible for the majority of monumental public sculpture in the United States.  In 1999, Bacsi was awarded the Gold Medal and Maurice B. Hexter Prize at the NSS Members' Exhibition in New York City.  He is also a Sculptor Member of the California Art Club, established in 1906.  In 2001, he won the Gold Medal at the CAC 91st Annual Juried Members' Exhibition at the Pasadena Historical Museum.

Bacsi's work has been exhibited coast to coast, and is in private collections throughout the country.  He holds a California Community Colleges teaching certificate for Adult Education programs and has taught at Santa Barbara City College Adult Education programs, and privately since 1986.  He is a member of the Santa Barbara Sculptors' Guild.  He also serves as an advisor to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docents' Council.

He lives and works in Santa Barbara.

 

Aldo Casanova  -  Born in San Francisco in 1929, Aldo Casanova received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from San Francisco State University and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.  He taught for thirty-five years at Scripps College, where he is Professor Emeritus, and for more than ten years at San Francisco State University, Antioch College in Ohio, Temple University in both Philadelphia and Rome, the State University of New York at Albany, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

In 1958, Casanova received a three-year Prix de Rome fellowship in sculpture at the American Academy in Rome.  He lived and worked there for a total of eight years as a Prix de Rome recipient and later as a visiting artist and sculptor in residence.

Casanova is an elected member of both the National Academy of Design and the National Sculpture Society in New York.  His works have won the Louis Comfort Tiffany Purchase Award, the Speyer Prize, and two Certificates of Merit from the National Academy and the Lindsay Morris Prize and Tallix Foundry Prize from the National Sculpture Society.  Among the collections that include his sculptures are the Whitney Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Orange County Museum, the Columbus (Ohio) Museum, the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA, the Smalley Sculpture Garden of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, the California Institute of Technology, the Johnson Museum of Cornell University, the Fine Arts Museum of Colby College in Maine, the American Academy in Rome, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., The Stanford Research Institute, the National Academy of Design, Ohio State University, Scripps College, Pomona College, and the Keck Science Center of the Claremont Colleges.  Also, many works are in private collections, including those of Joseph Hirshhorn, Hugh Hefner, Julie Newmar, Ernest Bryant, Jack Linkletter, and Henri and Jan Taper Lazarof.

Casanova has shown in numerous national and international one-person and group exhibitions.  For two years, three of his works toured South American museums in a show entitled "The New Vein" organized by the Smithsonian Institute.  The exhibition displayed the work of eight prominent American sculptors. Last year, his bronze "Stranger in Paradise III" (rhino) was included in Masterworks of American Sculpture:  Selections from Members of the National Sculpture Society, 1875-1999, at the Fleischer Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona, and during the past three years his work has been shown in three exhibitions in New York.

Currently, he is working in his Montclair studio on the "Stranger in Paradise" series of sculptures. four of which are included in the upcoming Chaffey Art Association exhibition.  These sculptures allude to the co-dependency of fauna and flora in their environment and to their endangered status.

 

Albert Stewart  -  Fellow of the National Sculpture Society and member of the National Academy Albert Stewart was born in England and came to the United States in 1907. After schooling he went to Canada to join the RAF. Following WW I. he returned to New York City and attended the Beaux Arts Institute of Design. He studied with the famous sculptors, McMonnies and Paul Manship becoming a chief assistant in 1930. His sculpture was greatly influenced by the study of Egyptian, Greek and Romanesque periods.

During an extremely active period in the late 20s and 30's, his work ranged from medals to large architectural decorations; the great frieze at the Buffalo City Hall in 1931, pediment for Department of Labor in Washington DC in 1935 and the battle monument of WWII in Thiaucourt, France were among the many.

He was known for his animal drawings and his monumental bronze bear, "Silver King"  (1925) that was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum.  He came to the west coast in 1939 to teach sculpture at Scripps College at the invitation of the head of the art department, Millard Sheets.  Stewart's art in California includes numerous religious works as well as facades of many buildings such as Home Savings and Loan, the 14' figures on the Los Angeles Court House, the 16' stone figures on the Scottish Rites Temple and Ft. Moore Memorial in L. A.  Shortly before he died, his "Refuges", a 9' bronze was dedicated in Gouda, Holland in 1964.

John Svenson, student and collaborator, said of Stewart that he had the dignified air of a British Officer. But underneath his aloof; sometimes intimidating exterior, was a warm wit with a theatrical flair. Stewart was well known for his impeccable impersonation of Maurice Chevalier who, like himself was a gentleman and an artist.

   

John Edward Svenson  -  Born in 1923, California native John Edward Svenson first became known for his 22' high and 17-1/2 ton redwood sculpture, "Ranchero" completed in 1953 at the Los Angeles County Fair. After serving in WW II in Africa, Sicily and Italy, he studied sculpture under Albert Stewart at the Claremont Graduate School and later became his assistant. Just before his death in 1965, Stewart along with Paul Manship sponsored Svenson's membership in the prestigious National Sculpture Society in New York.

He is primarily an architectural sculptor having at least twenty-two bronze, wood and ceramic sculptures in Home Savings & Loan banks alone plus numerous works in parks, hospitals, hotels, cities, malls, hotels, airports, schools, museums and churches. His sculptures are in Valdez, Anchorage and Skagway, Alaska State Museum in Juneau as well as in Australia, the Middle East and throughout the U.S. including the Smithsonian Air Museum.

Many know his "Sun Dancer" porpoise fountain at the Laguna Niguel Ritz-Carlton and "George Chaffey" at the Ontario International Airport.  He sculpted five over life-size bronze busts for Claremont University  and U.C.L.A. He has twice received the American Institute of Architecture Awards for Excellence In Sculpture.

Svenson is a member of American Medallic Sculpture Association. Among his bronze medallions are those he created for King Hussain and Iba Saud, San Gabriel Mission, Jet Airways, Alaska Pipeline, Providence Hospital, Northrop Corp., Foothill Ranch and the San Bernardino County Bicentennial "Trek of the Century". He was selected to design the Society of Medalist's 86th edition medallion commemorating the Tlingk Indians of Alaska. Since 1967, he has been a member of the board of Alaska Indian Arts in Haines.

His work has been shown in National Sculpture Society Galleries, Kennedy Galleries and National Academy in New York, the Alaska State Museum, La Jolla Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, and numerous others, often winning prizes. In 1997, he was awarded the Gold Medal and Maurice Hoxier Prize at the NSS Members' Exhibition in New York. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994 by the San Bernardino County Arts Council and Tiger of Year award in 1992 by Chaffey High  School.  He is listed in "Artists/USA", "The Source Book of Architectural Ornament" "Beautiful Things" and "Who's Who in American Art". His sculpture has appeared on the cover of "House Beautiful" (as recommended by Frank Lloyd Wright), two NSS Magazines, "Home Magazine" and others.

Svenson's talents include being, for thirty-six years, the design and exhibit coordinator for the Los Angeles County Fair.  Among his designs were the Childrens' playground, Empire Star Mine, Model Home Shows, the Monorail cars and numerous sculptures throughout the fair ground. He represented the Western Fair Association at National Fair in Cairo, Egypt and Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

~ Leslie Sherwood James, Lou Ann Svenson and Ruby Leavitt contributed to this article.

 

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