fred manasse-sculpture
My new website is fred-manasse-sculptor.yolasite.com. Take a look
fred
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Sunday, October 4, 2009
I have a group show coming up at the end of October and into early November at the "More than Words" Bookshop in Waltham, MA. It features some works by a group of Holocaust child survivors (of which I am one), and/or by some of their children. It features some of my early and more primitive sculptures, as well as the sculpture My Diaspora which won Honorable Mention in sculpture at the 2009 National show in Cape Cod.
My Diaspora – the sculpture
“My Diaspora” is an assembled bronze sculpture I created to commemorate the very personal and tragic history of my family’s dissolution and partial destruction. It took me over 2 years, and was a difficult personal challenge because most of my earlier sculpture work had been only figurative in nature, with live models. Originally I intended it to convey both my separation from my family, and also my lifelong search for information about their fates --- especially that of my little sister Myriam, who was only 1 1/2 when I last saw her. I decided to use the visual metaphor of an inverted family tree, starting from a central trunk to symbolize our intact family at home in Frankfurt-am-Main in pre-war Germany; then sculpting branching limbs to represent each of the separations and dispersals of family members from our home and from each other. I began this piece with a sculpture of my sister, which I built from one of the last photographs I have of her, on her 5th (and probably her last) birthday.
My Diaspora started out as a story of my family’s tragic history, The sculpture memorializes the permanent separation of the men in the family ─ my father, Alfred, my brother Gustav and myself from the women -- my mother Trude, my sister Myriam, and my paternal grandmother, soon after Kristalnacht in November, 1938 when I was 3 1/2. Neither group ever saw the other again.
But as I sculpted it over many months, it became even more meaningful to me. It was no longer just about the dissolution of my family. It had become also a palpable way for me to express my hope that -- against all odds -- my sister Myriam somehow survived and might still be alive, and that someone who knows her today might one day encounter this piece at a Holocaust-related meeting, recognize Myriam, and so reunite us. So the hands in the sculpture are meant to represent both yearning for those lost relationships, but also, for my brother and myself, the possibility of reuniting with our sister Myriam.
And this sculpture became yet even more to me – it also became a symbol of what our rescue by international Jewish charity means, not only to those of my generation who were rescued, but also to our children and grandchildren, who -- were it not for the heroic, caring Jews and Christians who risked so much to save us – they would not be here today to enrich our adopted homeland, with their talent and enterprise.
About the Sculptor - Fred K. Manasse
I began my personal journey as an amateur artist working in stained glass, but soon found that two-dimensional world too constraining. I moved next to working in fired clay as a medium for creating bas-relief heads, animal and figurative sculpture, first at Framingham State College and then at the Harvard/Radcliffe Ceramics Studio. In time I came to realize that fired clay sculpture was also too limiting a medium for what I needed to express in my art, so I joined the West Concord Sculptors studio, as an apprentice to two master sculptors, to work in oil-based clay. Most of my work there was figurative and with live models. When subsequently one of the master sculptors started the Beaumont Sculpture Studio, I joined her there. I also have a home studio in Waltham, MA, where I work mostly on heads from photos and memory. I have exhibited in a number of galleries, including the Mill-Brook Gallery in Concord NH, the Cape Cod Arts Center in Brewster MA, and the Rubin-Frankel Gallery at Boston University, MA. Most recently I have begun to work in stone and am a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carving Center and Sculpting Studio in West Rutland,VT as well as being a member of the Cape Cod Arts Center.
But as I sculpted it over many months, it became even more meaningful to me. It was no longer just about the dissolution of my family. It had become also a palpable way for me to express my hope that -- against all odds -- my sister Myriam somehow survived and might still be alive, and that someone who knows her today might one day encounter this piece at a Holocaust-related meeting, recognize Myriam, and so reunite us. So the hands in the sculpture are meant to represent both yearning for those lost relationships, but also, for my brother and myself, the possibility of reuniting with our sister Myriam.
And this sculpture became yet even more to me – it also became a symbol of what our rescue by international Jewish charity means, not only to those of my generation who were rescued, but also to our children and grandchildren, who -- were it not for the heroic, caring Jews and Christians who risked so much to save us – they would not be here today to enrich our adopted homeland, with their talent and enterprise.
About the Sculptor - Fred K. Manasse
I began my personal journey as an amateur artist working in stained glass, but soon found that two-dimensional world too constraining. I moved next to working in fired clay as a medium for creating bas-relief heads, animal and figurative sculpture, first at Framingham State College and then at the Harvard/Radcliffe Ceramics Studio. In time I came to realize that fired clay sculpture was also too limiting a medium for what I needed to express in my art, so I joined the West Concord Sculptors studio, as an apprentice to two master sculptors, to work in oil-based clay. Most of my work there was figurative and with live models. When subsequently one of the master sculptors started the Beaumont Sculpture Studio, I joined her there. I also have a home studio in Waltham, MA, where I work mostly on heads from photos and memory. I have exhibited in a number of galleries, including the Mill-Brook Gallery in Concord NH, the Cape Cod Arts Center in Brewster MA, and the Rubin-Frankel Gallery at Boston University, MA. Most recently I have begun to work in stone and am a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carving Center and Sculpting Studio in West Rutland,VT as well as being a member of the Cape Cod Arts Center.
artistic resume for fred manasse
FRED MANASSE- Artistic Resume
In all of my sculpture I want to let my passions and emotions dominate the pieces I create rather than slavishly trying to make accurate representations of what I see directly. I have sculpted in Clay (both wet and oil based) and have recently started to work in Granite and Marble and been elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carving Center and Sculpture studio in West Rutland Vermont. I am a member of the Cape Cod Artist Association (CCAA) and exhibited there. I am also a member of the Newton Art Association.
In my figurative work, although I try to work accurately by looking at the model when I have formed the piece I then modify it a bit to better reflect my own emotion and mood so as to be able to represent more specifically, what my imagination can dream up. I have only begun to exhibit seriously recently (2008), having previously shown my work to members of my men’s group and at one open studio in Newton MA, as well as participating in a group exhibition at the Millbrook Gallery in Concord NH in the summer of 2007. I have exhibited some pieces at the Cape Cod Artist Association gallery in Barnstable MA and won an Honorable mention in sculpture at their Nationals exhibition for my piece on the holocaust “My diaspora”, which relates to my early family history in wartime Europe.
Although educated as an Electrical Engineer and Physicist, throughout my 50 year career in Industry, academia and as an entrepreneur, I was always interested in art, fueled by traveling extensively all over the world and visiting museums and cathedrals. I was especially fascinated by sculpture and stained glass. I have also been collecting antiques, acquired many paintings and other works of art and crafts. However, until about 15 years ago, I never thought that I could create art myself. I befriended a stained glass artist and she took me on as an apprentice. I was soon designing and creating on my own.
About 8 years ago, I moved on to trying to sculpt by apprenticing myself to a modern sculptor in a Waltham studio and quickly learned how to work with plaster and make small objects (mostly fruits) in more durable materials such as clay, fiberglass, and eventually castings in aluminum and bronze. Since I retired from Raytheon a few years ago, I have been able to get more formal training in wet clay based fired and glazed ceramics by studying at the Harvard/Radcliffe studio and at Framingham State College. I was then able to create hand crafted imaginative pottery works which I did and even did some sculptural work. As I improved in my skills I joined a group of other sculptors which became the Beaumont Sculpture Studio, and have now been a member of that Apprenticeship Program in oil based clay doing figurative sculpture for 4 years.
In all of my sculpture I want to let my passions and emotions dominate the pieces I create rather than slavishly trying to make accurate representations of what I see directly. I have sculpted in Clay (both wet and oil based) and have recently started to work in Granite and Marble and been elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carving Center and Sculpture studio in West Rutland Vermont. I am a member of the Cape Cod Artist Association (CCAA) and exhibited there. I am also a member of the Newton Art Association.
In my figurative work, although I try to work accurately by looking at the model when I have formed the piece I then modify it a bit to better reflect my own emotion and mood so as to be able to represent more specifically, what my imagination can dream up. I have only begun to exhibit seriously recently (2008), having previously shown my work to members of my men’s group and at one open studio in Newton MA, as well as participating in a group exhibition at the Millbrook Gallery in Concord NH in the summer of 2007. I have exhibited some pieces at the Cape Cod Artist Association gallery in Barnstable MA and won an Honorable mention in sculpture at their Nationals exhibition for my piece on the holocaust “My diaspora”, which relates to my early family history in wartime Europe.
Although educated as an Electrical Engineer and Physicist, throughout my 50 year career in Industry, academia and as an entrepreneur, I was always interested in art, fueled by traveling extensively all over the world and visiting museums and cathedrals. I was especially fascinated by sculpture and stained glass. I have also been collecting antiques, acquired many paintings and other works of art and crafts. However, until about 15 years ago, I never thought that I could create art myself. I befriended a stained glass artist and she took me on as an apprentice. I was soon designing and creating on my own.
About 8 years ago, I moved on to trying to sculpt by apprenticing myself to a modern sculptor in a Waltham studio and quickly learned how to work with plaster and make small objects (mostly fruits) in more durable materials such as clay, fiberglass, and eventually castings in aluminum and bronze. Since I retired from Raytheon a few years ago, I have been able to get more formal training in wet clay based fired and glazed ceramics by studying at the Harvard/Radcliffe studio and at Framingham State College. I was then able to create hand crafted imaginative pottery works which I did and even did some sculptural work. As I improved in my skills I joined a group of other sculptors which became the Beaumont Sculpture Studio, and have now been a member of that Apprenticeship Program in oil based clay doing figurative sculpture for 4 years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)