Saunders Schultz (1927—2017) was an American sculptor known for relating his
sculpture
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 ...
s with their architectural surroundings. His work includes Site-Specific Sculpture, Nature-Interactive Sculpture, Science-Interactive Sculpture.
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
in 1927 to Rose and Abraham Schultz. Before graduating high school, he worked as an artist in the St. Louis area by painting murals for local businesses. He received a
Bachelor of Fine Arts
A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases.
Background
The Bachelor ...
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
, where he received his
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...
in 1952.
In 1960, along with fellow sculptor Bill Severson, Schultz founded "Scopia", a sculpture studio in Chesterfield, Missouri. After which, he became one of the founders of Environmental Sculpture.
As a sculptor, painter, educator, and author, Schultz is considered one of the founding fathers of architectural art in an environmental context. Schultz taught master classes and symposia at various universities including Harvard University School of Landscape Architecture,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...
, and
Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is the architecture school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. It is regarded as an important and highly prestigious architecture school.
Schultz collaborated with architects and landscape designers including
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
EDAW
EDAW was an international landscape architecture, urban and environmental design firm that operated from 1939 until 2009. Starting in San Francisco, the firm grew to become the most commercially successful and well-known landscape architecture and ...
,
Mitchell/Giurgola
Romaldo "Aldo" Giurgola AO (2 September 1920 – 16 May 2016) was an Italian academic, architect, professor, and author. Giurgola was born in Rome, Italy in 1920. After service in the Italian armed forces during World War II, he was educated ...
,
RTKL
RTKL was a global architecture, planning and design firm. The firm was founded in 1946 by Archibald Rogers and Francis Taliaferro in Rogers’ grandmother’s basement in Annapolis and grew to be one of the largest architectural firms in the world ...
,
Ellerbe Becket
Ellerbe Becket was an independent Minneapolis, Minnesota-based architectural, engineering, interior design and construction firm until 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM. AECOM is ranked as one of the world's largest architectural firms, with of ...
,
Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...
, Edward D. Stone, Jr., Thomas Ventullett III, and Theodore Wofford. Schultz also worked on proposed projects with
Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi (August 18, 1899 – February 14, 1994) was an Italian-American architect. A leading figure in modern architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based up ...
,
Benjamin Thompson
Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, FRS (german: Reichsgraf von Rumford; March 26, 1753August 21, 1814) was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th-century revolu ...
Schultz's sculptures vary from model-size to twenty-seven stories tall and are located in thirty-five states and the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, as well as
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
and
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions including Plastics, USA and the European Exhibit of the
United States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill C ...
, and the Moscow College of Industrial and Applied Arts in the former
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. He defined himself as a site-specific sculptor, developing projects with a social consciousness, projects he described as having "collaborative community envisioning". One such effort is still ongoing, the Eco Arch, proposed for the
East St. Louis
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
riverfront.
Site-specific sculpture
''Continuum'' (2015, last sculpture)
Schultz installed his last creation in November 2015, a sculpture titled "Continuum", commissioned by the company re-branding itself from "The Brown Shoe Company" to "
Caleres
Caleres Inc. is an American footwear company that owns and operates a variety of footwear brands. Its headquarters is located in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
"Flamma" is a collaboration with Geoffrey Post, Arthur Gensler, and Russ Butler (EDAW). The client was
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...
who wanted to show its commitment to Omaha upon moving its regional headquarters from Omaha, Nebraska to Houston, Texas. "Flamma"'s form is two expanding polished stainless helical flames that reflect and mirror, as in numerous other Schultz sculptures, the ever-changing colors and textures of its surroundings. The sculpture is 28' tall x 18' wide x 12' deep.
''Yod Menorah'' (1984)
"Yod Menorah" consists of seven polished stainless steel Yods which represent the Jewish letter for God, and the structure stands 26' tall x 28' wide x 28' deep. In one interview, Schultz recounted: "When I was invited to Washington as one of the five finalists I was told, "If it's not Jewish we won't pay for it - and if it is Jewish we will not pay for it because we believe in the ecumenical spirit." When a Baptist woman asked me, "Do you mind if I love it? To me it represents hands reaching upward.", I knew the sculpture was a success."
Nature-interactive sculpture
''Cosmos'' (1984)
"Cosmos" is a 20' tall x 90' wide x 40' deep bronze and stainless structure designed for Sheik Ahmed Juffali, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Juffali Industries, Saudi Arabia. Schultz worked with Bill Severson, fellow sculptor, Author Love of Ellerby Becket, architect, Julie Monk, interior designer, Arthur Monsey, Ph.D., structural engineer, John H. Scandrett, Ph.D. and David K. Hudson, Ph.D., physicists, and Charles Schweighauser, astronomer to design a sculpture that in Schultz's words, "has origins in historic Arabic astronomy as well as contemporary scientific concepts."
''Trephonia'' (1986)
"Trephonia" was created for Sears and subsidiary, Homart Development Company to demonstrate distinct contemporary vision to the Dallas community and to celebrate the dynamic wind force in the area. Mounted on a mounded traffic circle between office towers, Trephonia is composed of thirty-six polished stainless steel "trees", each at 42' tall x 25' wide x 25' deep, containing instruments which resonate differently in the wind according to their position and weight. Schultz collaborated with Richard O'Donnell, St. Louis Symphony percussionist, who designed the instruments to play music tuned to the pentatonic scale. The design team consisted of Schultz and Bill Severson, sculptors, Taylor-Hewlet, architect, Hellmuth/Obata/Kassabaum, landscape architect, Arthur Monsey, engineer, and Jack Ramsey, mechanical engineer. An article published at the time about the piece opened with "Heard any good sculpture lately?".
''Primogenesis'' (1981)
Schultz collaborated with Fred Guyton, architect, Richard Cummings, architectural consultant, Arthur Monsey, engineer, Jack Ramsey, structural engineer, John Higginbotham, mechanical engineer, George Monnig, computer scientist, and Bill Severson, sculptor on this 25' tall x 25' wide x 25' deep stainless steel sculpture. "Primogenesis", which translates to "first origins" because all energies' origin is the sun, is an example of a kinetic form which operates on free energy. It is mounted in the center of a small lake in Oak Knoll Park,
Clayton, Missouri
Clayton is a city in and the seat of St. Louis County, Missouri. It borders the independent city of St. Louis. The population was 17,355 at the 2020 census. Organized in 1877, the city was named after Ralph Clayton, who donated the land for the ...
. Solar energy powers the sculpture, which rotates around a central shaft one and one-half times every two hours in sunlight. Two panels covered with thirty-six silicon coated disks convert the sun's rays into electricity.
Science-interactive sculpture
''Cauchuc Grid'' (1986) (ARTnews January 1986 and Architectural Record November 1986)
Standing 30' tall x 18' wide x 30' deep, "Cauchuc Grid" is an oval sculpture and fountain created from three tons of polished stainless steel tubing dispersing 1,150 gallons of water per minute. Cauchuc or caoutchouc refers to the computer-generated rubber grids incorporated in the design. A computerized control system orchestrates a complex pattern of water from virtually all directions creating an arching form enhanced by rainbows constantly generated in the mist. Collaborating with Schultz were Robert Savage, architect, Crose-Gardner, landscape architects, and Bill Severson, fellow sculptor. The sculpture is located at the Regency West Office Park,
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
.
''Essence'' (1971)
"Essence" is a sculpture designed for the
Ralston Purina company
Ralston Purina Company was a St. Louis, Missouri,–based American conglomerate with substantial holdings in animal feed, food, pet food, consumer products, and entertainment. On December 12, 2001, it merged with Swiss food-giant Nestlé's ...
and is located at its headquarters in St. Louis. A protein molecule cross-section, created by slicing the protein molecule using a process called
x-ray diffraction
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...
, was the inspiration for "Essence", a three-dimensional representation of the molecule. The design team included Schultz, sculptor, Hellmuth/Obata/Kassabaum, architect, and Arthur Monsey, engineer.
''Linea'' (1982)
"Linea" is an 80' tall sculpture in
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
. Dale Perkinson, President of Linclay Corporation, and his architects, Bohm-NBBJ, invited Schultz, Bill Severson, fellow sculptor, Robert Goets, landscape architect, and Arthur Monsey, engineer to be part of the design team for the project. The sculpture's basic structure is a triangle with an open helix framework, allowing for low wind resistance and great strength. The sculpture is an example of the merging of science and aesthetics.
Awards
Schultz was the recipient of both national and international awards including: Carnegie Institute Achievement Award First Prize at the Invitational Competition, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay "Finite/Infinite", first public art project awarded by Civilian Facilities Administration (forerunner of HUD). Later selected by jury from 1,700 international entries for publication in HUD's National Community Arts Program, The Florida AlA Award for Excellence First Prize, Highland Garden, Broward County Florida Housing Authority, HUD Invitational Competition, The National Association of Counties Award, Oppenstein Park, Kansas City, Missouri.