Robert Graham (19 August 1938 – 27 December 2008) was a sculptor based in the
stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His monumental bronzes commemorate the
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
figure and are featured in public places across America.
Graham was born in
Mexico CityMexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city, with about 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008...
, Mexico. After the early death of his father, he moved with his mother, his grandmother, and an aunt to San Jose, where he began his formal training at
San Jose State UniversitySan José State University is a public university located in San José, California, United States. It is the founding campus of the California State University system...
.
Robert Graham (19 August 1938 – 27 December 2008) was a sculptor based in the
stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His monumental bronzes commemorate the
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
figure and are featured in public places across America.
Biography
Graham was born in
Mexico CityMexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city, with about 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008...
, Mexico. After the early death of his father, he moved with his mother, his grandmother, and an aunt to San Jose, where he began his formal training at
San Jose State UniversitySan José State University is a public university located in San José, California, United States. It is the founding campus of the California State University system...
. He continued his studies at the
San Francisco Art InstituteFounded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute is one of the U.S.’s older and more prestigious schools of higher education in contemporary art. The school's main campus is located in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California, United States, with the graduate center in the Dogpatch...
in
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
, finishing in 1964. Within five years he had one-man exhibitions of his sculpture at important contemporary art galleries in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New York City, London, Cologne, and Essen, Germany. He lived in London for a period before settling in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. His first solo exhibition in a museum was at the
Dallas Museum of ArtThe Dallas Museum of Art is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, USA along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood.- History :...
in 1972. Since then he has had dozens of one-man shows, including several at the
Los Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
.
Graham's first major monumental commission was the ceremonial gateway for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, for the occasion of the 1984
OlympicsThe Olympic Games are a major international event of summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes compete in a wide variety of events. The Games are currently held every two years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in...
.
He also designed the commemorative silver dollar for the event. The gateway featured two bronze torsos, male and female, modeled on contestants in the games. The gateway was a major design element of an Olympiad noted for its lack of new construction. To the surprise of many, the nudity of the torsos became an issue in the media.
Graham used a range of materials and scales in his work. In the 1970s Graham created very small wax sculptures (circa 4" - 10 cm), depicting sexual congress. His 1986 monument to the boxer
Joe LouisJoseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949....
is a 24' bronze fist and forearm. He has created hundreds of nude figures and groupings in intermediate scales.
He married actress
Anjelica HustonAnjelica Huston is an American actress and former fashion model.Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston...
in 1992 and they resided in an unusual dwelling in Venice, California. Huston refused to move to the
BohemianA Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region or Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic...
area unless Graham built them a fortress to live in. The result was a giant, windowless structure behind an opaque 40-foot fence.
Graham made a cameo appearance in Huston's movie,
The Life Aquatic with Steve ZissouThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is Wes Anderson's fourth feature length film, released in the U.S. on December 25 2004. It was written by Anderson and Noah Baumbach and was filmed in and around Naples, Ponza and the Italian Riviera....
, as the Venezuelan general near the beginning of the film standing on the deck of the ship.
Wes AndersonWesley Mortimer Wales "Wes" Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums...
mentions in the movie's commentary that Graham has some aspects in common with Steve Zissou.
California Governor
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
and First Lady
Maria ShriverMaria Owings Shriver is an award-winning American journalist and author, and the First Lady of California. She is married to actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is a member of the Kennedy family.-Early life:...
announced on May 28, 2008 that Graham will be inducted into the
California Hall of FameConceived by First Lady Maria Shriver, the California Hall of Fame was established at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts to honor legendary individuals and families who embody California’s innovative spirit and have made their mark on history...
, located at
The California Museum for History, Women and the ArtsThe California Museum for History, Women and the Arts, mostly known in its abbreviated form, The California Museum – home of the California Hall of Fame – is housed in the State Archives Building in Sacramento, one block from the State Capitol...
. The induction ceremony took place on December 15 2008 and he was inducted alongside 11 other legendary Californians.
Graham died 12 days after the ceremony on December 27, 2008. The artist's send-off was attended in early January 2009 by many famous faces of the art world and Hollywood. The funeral was held at
Cathedral of Our Lady of the AngelsThe Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, also called the Los Angeles Cathedral, is a cathedral church of the United States in Los Angeles, California...
, which has great bronze doors that Graham created for the cathedral. His remains are interred in the Crypt Mausoleum of the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the AngelsThe Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, also called the Los Angeles Cathedral, is a cathedral church of the United States in Los Angeles, California...
.
Works
- 2007 - "Spirit of California" - California Hall of Fame
Conceived by First Lady Maria Shriver, the California Hall of Fame was established at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts to honor legendary individuals and families who embody California’s innovative spirit and have made their mark on history...
Medal
- 2002 - The Great Bronze Doors and Statue of Mary - Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, also called the Los Angeles Cathedral, is a cathedral church of the United States in Los Angeles, California...
, Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
- 2001 - Prologue - addition to the FDR Memorial, Washington D.C.
- 1999 - Charlie "Bird" Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is often considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians...
Memorial, Kansas City, MissouriKansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being Independence, just to the city's east...
- 1997 - Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader.Duke Ellington became one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music, and is largely recognized as one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz, though his music stretched into...
Monument - Central ParkCentral Park is a large public, urban park that occupies over a square mile in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year...
, New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
- 1997 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a presidential memorial dedicated to the memory of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and to the era he represents.-FDR Memorial:...
, Washington D.C.
- 1994 - Plumed Serpent, Plaza de César Chávez
Plaza de César Chávez is a 2.2-acre park in Downtown San Jose, California, USA, named after César Chávez in 1993. It is surrounded by South Market Street, across which is The Tech Museum of Innovation, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Circle of Palms Plaza and the Fairmont San Jose Hotel...
, San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose or San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. The county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley...
- 1988 - Gates of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu is the only museum in the state of Hawaii devoted exclusively to contemporary art. It provides an accessible forum for provocative, dynamic forms of visual art, offering interaction with art and artists in a unique island environment...
- 1986 - Joe Louis Memorial, Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
- 1984 - Olympic Gateway - Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California at Exposition Park that is home to the University of Southern California Trojans football team. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena adjacent to...
, Los Angeles, California
- 1983 - Fountain Figure No. 1, Fountain Figure No. 2, and Fountain Figure No. 3, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- 1978 - Dance Door - Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
, Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
External links