Robert Ernest Garrison was an American

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

(May 30, 1895 – 1943). He was born in

Fort Dodge Fort Dodge is a city in, and the county seat of, Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 census, a decrease from 25,136 in 2000. Fort Dodge is a major commercial center for North Cen ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. Son of Fred A. Garrison and Anna Timms. Garrison studied at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and with

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georg ...

. He made his home in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

where he served on the faculty of the University of Denver and some of his work can be found there. Garrison worked mainly in stone and bronze. In 1919 he moved to Denver and became a teacher and Director of the Denver Academy of Fine and Applied Arts (which later became the Chappell School and eventually the School of Art of the University of Denver). During his tenure there he taught modeling, drawing and applied design. While in Denver he became acquainted with George William Eggers, the Director of the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between t ...

and president of the Municipal Art Commission of Denver. Garrison received commissions for many of Denver's architectural ornaments in the 1920s, including works for the NRHP-listed Ideal Building, the NRHP-listed Midland Savings Building, the

National Jewish Hospital National Jewish Health is a Denver, Colorado academic hospital/clinic doing research and treatment in respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders. It is an internationally respected medical center that draws people from many countries to ...

's B'nai B'rith Building, the Park Hill Branch Library,

Denver University The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

's football stadium, and South High School. In 1930 Garrison moved to New York City and began completing several projects there. These included the three sculptural panels for the

RKO Building Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

at the Sixth Avenue entrance of

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

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 ...

. He also completed a heroic figure at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, and sculptural details for the

Boston Avenue Methodist Church The Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, located in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, and completed in 1929, is considered to be one of the finest examples of ecclesiastical Art Deco architecture in the United States, and has been placed on the Nationa ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. Additional works include architectural sculptures in the style of medieval

grotesques Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

at South High School, Denver and the figures of the four evangelists on the bell tower of the former

St. Thomas Seminary St. Thomas Seminary, located in Bloomfield, Connecticut, is a minor seminary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. The current rector is the Most Reverend Christie A. Macaluso. History St. Thomas Seminary was founded in 1897 by Bish ...

, Denver. The

Denver Botanic Gardens The Denver Botanic Gardens is a public botanical garden located in the Cheesman Park neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. The park contains a conservatory, a variety of theme gardens and a sunken amphitheater, which hosts various concerts in the su ...

has a

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

frieze depicting, among things, two hunters with shotguns shooting at a buffalo. This frieze originally was part of the Midland Savings Bank but was removed when the bank was renovated in 1964 and moved to the botanical gardens. His two monumental molded concrete figures of athletes were integral to the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

's Hilltop Stadium (1926), and were demolished along with the stadium in 1971. A public debate ensued about what should be done with Garrison's 27-foot-high sculpted figures that graced the outside walls. The male and female figures were said to be “The spirit and significance of coeducational college athletics.” As the Hilltop Stadium figures were hollow and considered fragile, they were not saved. Garrison also designed the Civic Center Park's Seal Pool's two fountains, a pair of bronze mountain lions for the entrance of the State Office Building and the gargoyles at Denver's South High School.Winter 2006 University of Denver Magazine Garrison's work was cited by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

registration form for Denver's Civic Center Historic District which was listed on the

in 1974 and further designated a

in 2012. A veteran of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served overseas in World War I from 14 July 1918 to 22 March 1919. Garrison also enlisted in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He died in 1943 while teaching camouflage painting.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrison, Robert 1895 births 1943 deaths People from Fort Dodge, Iowa American architectural sculptors American male sculptors Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni University of Denver faculty Sculptors from Iowa 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American military personnel of World War I American military personnel of World War II