Renzo G. Fenci (1914–1999) was an Italian-American artist and arts educator, best known for his
bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...
. He worked in 1942 as a New Deal artist with the United States Treasury Department's
Section of Painting and Sculpture
The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury.
Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...
.
Biography
Fenci was born in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
on 18 November 1914. At a young age he went to study art at the
Royal Institute of Art
The Royal Institute of Art ( sv, Kungliga Konsthögskolan) is an institution in Stockholm, Sweden for higher education in art, He received a master's degree in 1932 from Instituto d'Arte Firenze (Art Institute of Florence) and studied with sculptors Libero Andriotti and
Bruno Innocenti
Bruno Innocenti (4 February 1906 – 3 October 1986) was an Italian artist and educator, known for his sculptures.
About
Bruno Innocenti was born on 4 February 1906 in Florence, Italy. He was the son of a goldsmith, Natale Innocenti, and his ...
.
He emigrated to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, New York around 1937 or 1938, due to the change in politics in Europe and the rise in
Fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
. Fenci lived in New York City, New York and Madison, Wisconsin before settling down in Pullman, Washington in order to teach fine art at
Washington State College
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...
.
He was commissioned in 1942 by the United States Treasury Department's
Section of Painting and Sculpture
The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury.
Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...
(later known as The Section of Fine Arts) to create art. These commissions were for the creation of a series of
terra-cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...
bas reliefs
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, entitled “Cultivation of Corn”. Originally he planned to create six bas-relief panels, but the Section of Painting and Sculpture would only pay for three panels and there was much difficulty in the completion of this job.
By 1944, Fenci moved to Santa Barbara, California. Between 1947 until 1954, he was taught at Santa Barbara College (now called
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
). From 1955 until 1977, Fenci was the head of the sculpture department at Otis Art Institute (now named
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...
).
Fenci has work in the many public art museum collections including at the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
museum, and the
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
.
Fenci died at the age of 85 in Los Angeles, California on December 31, 1999.
Personal life
He was married to Jeanne Lyons Foster in Santa Barbara. Fenci had one son and two stepdaughters, his son is also a sculptor.
See also
*
List of New Deal sculpture
List of New Deal sculpture is a list of sculpture found in the United States and its territories, including free standing, relief and architectural sculpture that was funded by the federal government during the New Deal era.
These include wo ...