Albin Polasek (February 14, 1879 – May 19, 1965) was a Czech-American sculptor and educator. He created more than 400 works during his career, 200 of which are displayed in the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens in

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was f ...

Career

Born as Albín Polášek in Frenštát,

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...

, part of the

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now in the Czech Republic), Polasek apprenticed as a wood carver in Vienna. At the age of 22, he emigrated to the United States and began formal art training at age 25 under Charles Grafly at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

in Philadelphia. As a student, he first produced ''Man Carving His Own Destiny'' (1907) and ''Eternal Moment'' (1909). In 1909, Polasek became an American citizen; in 1910, he won the

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

competition; in 1913, he received honorable mention at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial ar ...

for "The Sower;" in 1915, he took the

Widener Gold Medal The George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal was a prestigious sculpture prize awarded by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1913 to 1968. Established in 1912, it recognized the "most meritorious work of Sculpture modeled by an American cit ...

from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for his sculpture "Aspiration." At age 37, after periods of residence in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and

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 was invited to head the sculpture department at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, where he remained for nearly 30 years. While there he created the original '' Forest Idyll''; ''Victorious Christ'' for St. Cecelia's Cathedral in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

, Nebraska; Kenilworth Memorial relief,

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the ...

, Illinois; '' The Spirit of Music'' in Grant Park in Chicago; the '' Woodrow Wilson Memorial'' in Prague, Czech Republic; Governor Richard Yates sculpture, capital grounds, Springfield, Illinois; and many other works. Polasek was elected an associate member of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...

in 1927 and full member in 1933. Albin Polasek was a close friend of fellow artist

Louis Grell Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ...

while he lived at Tree Studios in Chicago. The Grell Family archive collection contains letters by Grell discussing Polasek's move to Florida and becoming ill shortly after. In 1950, Polasek retired at age 70 to Winter Park, Florida. Within months, he suffered a stroke that left his left side paralyzed; he subsequently completed 18 major works with his right hand only, including ''Victory of Moral Law'', the artist's comment on the

1956 Hungarian Revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hung ...

. Toward the end of 1950, at age 71, he married former student

Ruth Sherwood Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ar ...

, who died 22 months later in October 1952. In 1961, Polasek married Emily Muska Kubat. Upon his death in 1965, Polasek was buried beside his first wife in Winter Park's Palm Cemetery, where his ''12th Station of the Cross'' (1939) is his monument. Emily M.K. Polasek died in 1988.

Selected works

Polasek's better-known works include the ''Theodore Thomas Memorial'' (1924), the 1941 memorial to

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech and Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas. It may refer to: * Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), first President of Czechoslovakia * Tomáš Baťa (1876–1932), Czech footwear entrepreneur * Tomáš Berdy ...

in Chicago,Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Memorial. Chicago Public Art. http://chicagopublicart.blogspot.com/2013/09/tomas-garrigue-masaryk-memorial.html the ''Wilson Memorial'' (1928), ''

Radegast Radegast () is a small town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the smallest town in Saxony-Anhalt and is located about 13 km south of the district capital of Köthen. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of t ...

'' (1929) and ''Sts. Cyril and Methodius'' (1929) in the Czech Republic. His ''Mother Crying Over the World'' (1942) was a response to World War II and his ''Victory of Moral Law'' (1956) to the Hungarian Revolution.

Cemetery monuments

Like many other sculptors of his era, Polasek created several cemetery memorials. Notable among these are ''The Pilgrim'' and ''The Mother'' (1927), both located in the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago, and the ''Pilgrim at the Eternal Gate'' in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictures of all three are featured in both biographies listed in the sources section.

Images

File:Cyril Metodej.jpg, ''Sts. Cyril and Methodius'' File:Strůjce svého osudu.jpg, ''Man carving his own destiny'' File:Cb-sower2.jpg, ''The Sower'', 1911 File:Socha Radegasta.jpg, ''

'' File:Masaryk EquChi1.jpg, ''

Tomáš Masaryk Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 185014 September 1937) was a Czechoslovak politician, statesman, sociologist, and philosopher. Until 1914, he advocated restructuring the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a federal state. With the help of ...

Memorial'', Chicago File:Capitol Richard Yates statue by Albin Polasek.jpg,

Yates Yates may refer to: Places United States * Fort Yates, North Dakota *Yates Spring, a spring in Georgia, United States *Yates City, Illinois * Yates Township, Illinois *Yates Center, Kansas * Yates, Michigan * Yates Township, Michigan *Yates, Misso ...

Memorial, Springfield, Illinois, 1923 File:Capitol Richard Yates statue detail by Albin Polasek.jpg, detail, Yates Memorial File:Gibault statue.jpg,

Pierre Gibault Father Pierre Gibault (7 April 1737 – 16 August 1802) was a Jesuit missionary and priest in the Northwest Territory in the 18th century, and an American Patriot during the American Revolution. Frontier Missionary Gibault was born 7 April 1737 a ...

, Vincennes, Indiana, 1934

Literature

* JAEGEROVÁ, Anna. ''Albín Polášek: Boundaries of Continents and Ages''. Brno, 2018
Available online
Bachelor's thesis. Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts. Thesis supervisor Pavel Suchánek.

References

*Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, ''Cemetery Sculpture in America'', unpublished manuscript *Polasek, ''Albin Polasek: Man Carving His Own Destiny,'' Albin Polasek Foundation 1970 *Sherwood, Ruth, ''Carving His Own Destiny: The Story of Albin Polasek,''

Ralph Fletcher Seymour Ralph Fletcher Seymour (March 18, 1876 – January 1, 1966) was an American artist, author, and publisher of the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Though long based in Chicago, he was also noted for his work in the American Southwes ...

, Publisher, Chicago 1954

External links

Polasek Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polasek, Albin 1879 births 1965 deaths People from Frenštát pod Radhoštěm People from the Margraviate of Moravia Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States American people of Czech descent American architectural sculptors American male sculptors Czech Roman Catholics Czech sculptors Czech male sculptors Modern sculptors Artists from Chicago People from Winter Park, Florida 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists National Sculpture Society members Sculptors from Illinois Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni National Academy of Design members