Blog
Welcome to the official blog for Marshall M. Fredericks, America’s Public Sculptor. Museum staff will share stories about his life, art, and behind the scenes at the Museum. Be sure to “comment”, “like”, and enjoy!
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It's the season for graduations. Students all over the world are graduating from high schools and colleges. Although this year's graduations are going to look a lot different than previous years, receiving a diploma is still a big reason to celebrate. Marshall Fredericks attended high school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute in Cleveland, Ohio. Fredericks then attended The Cleveland School of Art, now Cleveland Institute of Art, from 1926-1930 and graduated with a degree in sculpture. Let's take a look at a few photos of Marshall the student, his grades and finally his diploma.  Marshall Fredericks as a student at The Cleveland School of Art in his studio. Photo: The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives  Marshall Fredericks's report card for his 4 years at The Cleveland School of Art. If you take a look as his grades you can see he was an excellent student. The only issue was in World Literature. Photo: The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives.  Marshall Fredericks's diploma from The Cleveland School of Art. Photo: The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives By: Geoffe Haney ~ Collection Manager
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I often refer to The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives as the brain center of the Museum. There are tens of thousands of meticulously organized documents in the Archives. An almost complete record of Fredericks's life can be found across the gray metal shelves lined with boxes of photographs, articles, ideas, sketches, awards, books, drawings, business records, project files and letters. When I research the archives I always find some unique treasure. Sometimes it's a small sketch, or a letter, a magazine or newspaper article, or most recently a small obscure book written in Swedish. The book, from 1930, is a small picture book from the Skansen open air zoo in Sweden. It contains about 50 pages of black and white images of animals with amusing captions. The two bears, pictured below, are seated in their best pose and awaiting sweet treats. Wait a minute two bears... that sounds familiar doesn't it?  Familiar looking bear posing for treats in a Swedish zoo book from 1930. Photo: Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives When I found the book it was open to the above page. I quickly made a scan and showed Andrea Ondish, our Curator of Education. I asked her to take a look at the scan and immediately she had seen what I had seen. That was the bear that inspired Marshall Fredericks's sculpture Two Bears. The pose, paws, head, belly and the expression on the face are almost exact. We had found Fredericks's bear. The book was found in a box containing several folders of animal photos. Eagles, gazelles, geese, ducks, otters, and bears... oh my!  Marshall Fredericks creating the clay sculpture of "Two Bears" in 1957 in his Royal Oak, Michigan Studio. Photo: Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives 35 years later Fredericks would finally sculpt those bears for Lincoln Square, a shopping mall, in Urbanna, Illinois. Artists often use models as studies for their artwork. Human models pose easily... bears do not. Inspiration comes from many sources. Marshall Fredericks's beloved Two Bears sculpture exists because of a little picture book, and a Swedish bear, begging for treats, that lived more than 90 years ago. By: Geoffe Haney ~ Collection Manager
!You've heard it said before... location is everything. Being a prominent Detroit sculptor, Marshall Fredericks's talents did not go unnoticed by many including General Motors. In the mid 1950s Fredericks was hired for a unique project, create a billboard for a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. Billboards used to be great works of art. Go ahead and Search Google for 1950s billboards. Lot of great billboards right?! Marshall Fredericks soon found a 1955 Chevy in his Royal Oak, Michigan studio. He carefully took measurements from the car to create a side view, relief sculpture of the automobile.
Fredericks worked in clay to meticulously sculpt the car's exact likeness. Once he finished, a fiberglass sculpture was created from the clay and was added to the billboard. The billboard was installed by the Detroit advertising firm Walker and Company. Much research has gone into locating that original billboard, but it's whereabouts are currently unknown.
By: Geoffe Haney ~ Collections Manager
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