Frederick Hart (American, 1943-1999)

Frederick Hart has been described as America's greatest representational artist. He has gone completely against the grain of the contemporary art world; substance and beauty are the chief criteria of his work. "My work isn't art for art's sake, it's about life. I have no patience with obscure or unintelligible art - I want to be understood."  Hart is renowned for his classical sculptures created in bronze, marble, and clear acrylic which he referred to as “sculpting with light”. Hart is celebrated by an even wider audience for his awe-inspiring public monuments. Hart pioneered this new technique in sculpting using the revolutionary medium of acrylic. Hart believed that the spirit of the work defined the level of its success, stating, "When I create something that has a spirit, that has impact, I know I've achieved what I intended." Hart belonged to a group of artists, poets, and philosophers who called themselves “Centerists.” They believed that a rebirth of classical elements was overdue in the art world and strongly opposed the idea of “art for art’s sake” believing that art should be a reflection of life, substance, beauty and grace.

Hart was born in Atlanta in 1943 while his father was serving in World War II. His mother died suddenly when Hart was three years old and he was subsequently cared for by his mother's family in rural South Carolina during his early childhood years. The traditions of Southern country life have remained with Frederick Hart long after these youthful years he spent in South Carolina. He moved to Washington, D.C. when his father remarried in the early 1950's where he attended public school. At age sixteen, he was admitted as a philosophy major to the University of South Carolina. Hart returned to Washington, D.C. with a desire to study art and attended the Corcoran College of Art and Design and American University where he studied painting and drawing. Later, after sculpting a bust of a girlfriend, he realized an art form that possessed weight, volume, presence and gravity. In 1967 applied for a job at the Washington National Cathedral to learn the skill of stone carving. By 1971 Hart was ready to leave the Cathedral. For the next three years he worked in his own unheated studio, "almost starving to death" as he sketched his ideas for the Cathedral international competition to commission the design for a series of "Creation" sculptures for its main facade. Hart remembers, "It was to be a contemporary idea of Creation, a vision of an unfolding universe." Inspired by Pierre Tellhard de Chardin's writings on science and theology, Hart envisioned a great allegorical work that would evoke the heroic struggle for awakening and consciousness. The selection committee for the Cathedral was impressed with the power and vision of his scale model studies and in 1974 awarded him the project. He was thirty-one. Since this first major commission Hart had received many others as well as creating a number of limited edition sculptures and unique works for his collectors.

Hart has achieved many awards and accolades throughout his career including: an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, the Henry Hering Award from the National Sculpture Society.  Hart has also been commissioned for many competitive and important projects including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.; The Creation Sculptures for the Washington National Cathedral; in 1985 President Reagan appointed Hart to a five-year term on the Commission of Fine Arts. Hart presented Pope John Paul II with The Cross of the Millennium at a private meeting in the Papal Study in Rome in 1997 to honor 50 years of his priesthood.