Gwen Lux Creighton professionally Gwen Lux, (1908–2001) was an American sculptor known for her abstraction and frequently constructed from polyester resin concrete and metals. She was among America’s pioneer women sculptors.

Biography

Gwen Wickerts was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

on November 17, 1908. She began her art studies in Detroit at age 14, taking classes with potter,

Mary Chase Perry Stratton Mary Chase Perry Stratton (March 15, 1867 – April 15, 1961) was an American ceramic artist. She was a co-founder, along with Horace Caulkins, Horace James Caulkins, of Pewabic Pottery, a form of ceramic art used to make architectural tiles. ...

Pewabic Pottery Pewabic Pottery is a ceramic studio and school in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1903, the studio is known for its iridescent glazes, some of which grace notable buildings such as the Shedd Aquarium and Basilica of the National Shrine of the Imma ...

. She later studied at Wicker School of Fine Art and Art League of Detroit between 1923–1926. Followed by a year of study at

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...

(MICA) from 1926 until 1927, and at the

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...

from 1927 until 1928. In 1933, she received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

for Fine Art. Lux lived and worked in Detroit, Michigan in the early part of her career, and then moved to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, Hawaii in 1973. Her first marriage was to fellow sculptor Eugene "Gene" J. Lux, which ended in divorce. In 1959, she married Thomas Hawk Creighton, a longtime editor of

Progressive Architecture The Progressive Architecture Awards (P/A Awards) annually recognise risk-taking practitioners and seek to promote progress in the field of architecture. History The editors of ''Progressive Architecture'' magazine hosted the first Progressive Arch ...

magazine. Thomas Hawk Creighton died in 1984 in Hawaii. In 1986, Lux married, to her longtime friend and companion Jerome R. Wallace, a well-known artist who created batiks using natural dyes found in the local environment on the island of

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

, Hawaii.

Notable commissions

Her commissions included sculptures for

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

in New York City, the McGraw-Hill Building in Chicago, the

General Motors Technical Center The GM Technical Center is a General Motors facility in Warren, Michigan. The campus has been the center of the company's engineering effort since its inauguration in 1956. In 2000 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; fourtee ...

in Detroit, and the centerpiece for the first class dining room of the SS ''United States'' The

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

, the

Hawaii State Art Museum The No. 1 Capitol District Building, on the site of the former Armed Services YMCA Building, now houses the Hawaii State Art Museum and the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. History While they were both in the cabinet, under King ...

, the Kresge Art Museum (Michigan State University, East Lansing) and the

Mariners' Museum The Mariners' Museum and Park is located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. Designated as America’s ''National Maritime Museum'' by Congress, it is one of the largest maritime museums in North America. The Mariners' Museum Library, conta ...

(Newport News, Virginia) are among the public collections holding her work. Her sculptures combined abstraction and realism, and were frequently constructed from polyester resin concrete and metals. She taught sculpture classes at the Arts & Crafts Society of Detroit.

References

External links

Image of Gwen Lux, from ca.1940
from the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lux, Gwen Creighton 1908 births 2001 deaths American women sculptors Artists from Hawaii Modern sculptors 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists Maryland Institute College of Art alumni School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni

Biography

Notable commissions

Further reading

References

External links