Marshall M. Frederick Sculpture Museum

 Hello everyone, I have decided since I am transferring to SVSU next semester I would explore the SVSU Marshall M. Frederick sculpture Museum in Saginaw Michigan. The first thing that I noticed upon arriving at the museum is that everything is so elegant. All of the sculptures are created in plaster and bronze models and molds. There are more than 200 models and models in the gallery. During my time at the museum, I got to learn more about the history of the museum and how it formed. 

Before we get into some of the art pieces, let's talk about the history of the museum. Honey Doan Arbury studied under Marshall Fredericks at the Kingswood school at Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in the 1930s. They both reconnected in the 1970s through Arbury’s uncle who was an architect in Midland, Alden B Dow. Dow collaborated with Frederick on professional projects. During this time Arbury was on the Board of Control and the SVSU foundation at SVSU. Arbury and her husband then became friends with Fredericks and his wife. Together they worked to create an exhibit of Frederick’s work un a gallery at the university in the Arbury fine arts center. 

This space is dedicated to the visual and performing arts and opened to the public in May of 1988. After Frederick’s death in 1998 SVSU received the remaining of his tools, equipment, architectural site models, sculptures and personal and business papers. In October of 2003 they received a $2.5 million expansion called the Phase ll capital campaign and this doubled the size of the museum. And is now a creative place for students everywhere to enjoy and learn more about art. 

Now after knowing the amazing history of the museum let's talk about some of the art pieces. The first art piece that stood out to me was the Christ and the Children created in 1962. All of the religious art pieces always stand out to me more. Bring that I am religious. It amazes me how much detail and emotion he put into creating the sculptures. This piece was created as a relief for the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Since in image 1 is the picture. I did not take a picture of this one but here is a picture from their website that is also linked below. 

The second art piece that stood out to me was the Leaping Gazelle in 1936. This piece has an interesting background. He created this when he won a National Award Competition to design a fountain for Levi L. Barbour Memorial in Belle Isle in Detroit Michigan. What really stood out to me was the movement that he created in not only this piece but all of the pieces. The way he shaped the base is amazing and creates a great flow of the angles of the legs and head of the gazelle. You can see this in image 2 also a picture from the SVSU website. 

A fun fact is that I learned that Marshall Fredericks created the cross in the woods in Indian River. I have visited this place multiple times. I have many pictures with this cross. My family loves visiting and now I am glad that I now know who helped create this amazing cross. In picture 3 is the picture of the cross in the woods that I took last summer around this time last year. 

This experience out the Marshall m Fredericks sculpture Museum was incredible and I’m glad that I described it to visit this museum. It was nice to learn more about the school I will be attending and learning more about the art pieces that are in the museum. I suggest that if you haven’t come to the Marshall M Fredericks Sculpture Museum in Saginaw, Michigan to come out and check it out. It is free to enter to the public during operating hours and also has free online tours. 



Image 1

Christ and Children

Marshall M. Frederick 1962


Image 2 

Leaping Gazelle

Marshall M. Fredericks 1936 



Image 3 

Cross in the Woods

Marshall M. Fredericks 1959


Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum 

Marshall M. Fredericks – Sculpture Museum

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ted talk on "The Power of Inclusive Contemporary Art"

Image
  This week I decided to learn more about Inclusive Contemporary Art. I found that Inclusive Contemporary Art is very interesting, and I like the style that the inclusive Contemporary takes with it. I watched a TED Talk called The Power of Inclusive Contemporary Art by Aundrea Frahm. The TED Talk was released in March of 2018. Her TED Talk was very educational, and I learned more about Inclusive art.  Watch the TED Talk here: Aundrea Frahm: The Power of Inclusive Contemporary Art | TED Talk How they viewed it back in history  The view opens with her asking what contemporary art is. Inclusive contemporary art is making a meaning, memorable and valuable for the everyday person. It can be out of the box and sometimes edgy. But then she gives us some background to where contemporary art came from and when it started showing in artist works. She dated back to the 19th century where all of the art pieces were beautiful and had a narrative to them. These art pieces told a story,...
Read more