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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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
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!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
in 1930, at age 22, Marshall Fredericks won the prestigious Herman N. Matzen Scholarship while a student at the Cleveland School of Art. The $1000 scholarship ($15,000 in 2020 dollars) afforded Fredericks the opportunity to travel and study art abroad. In this previous post you can read that Fredericks first destination was to meet his mentor Carl Milles in Sweden. After Fredericks left Sweden, he traveled extensively through Europe, and eventually went to the North African country of Morocco. While there, Fredericks made a series of sketches of men and women that he saw on the streets. In these drawings we see fez wearing men, a Berber woman playing a rebab and on ox carrying a heavy load. These beautiful rarely seen sketches are from 1931 and showcase the drawing talents of Fredericks.  Morocco, 1931. Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives.  Morocco, 1931. Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Archives. By: Geoffe Haney ~ Collection Manager
In 1930 Marshall Fredericks traveled to Sweden to meet his mentor Carl Milles. He must have been on cloud 9 the entire trip. Marshall arrives in Sweden and goes to the school where Milles taught only to find out he has not taught there for 5 years. A watchman at the school then calls Milles on the phone and Fredericks talks to him. Milles invites him to his home and studio. Happens all the time, right? I can't imagine calling any of my mentors or idols today, and having them invite me to come meet them. (Who to call first)... I am a big fan of the History Channel program Ancient Aliens. If the team of Ancient Astronaut Theorists invited me to talk about UFO's and mysterious places on the planet, I would be dumbfounded. I would go in a heartbeat, and tell my tale to the world. Read Marshall Fredericks's account of meeting his mentor back in 1930. My First Meeting with Carl Milles” by Marshall M. Fredericks
By: Geoffe Haney ~ Collection Manager
Marshall Fredericks's sculpture Boy and Bear began a technological journey to be transformed into a small bronze sculpture through the process of Rapid Prototyping. This technology would have fascinated and amazed Fredericks.
I was fortunate to be part of the process which began last week by Mike Hall from Preferred Tech of Waterford, Michigan. Hall brought his equipment to the museum and scanned the sculpture which resulted in a digital file from which a plastic model will be printed. The model will then be sent to a bronze casting company in Lansing, Michigan where a mold will be created and a bronze will be cast. I will continue to update you on the process and let you know when the small Boy and Bear reproduction bronzes are available for purchase in the museum store.
By: Geoffe Haney ~ Collection Manager
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