Grand Central Academy of Art Presents Results of 2nd Annual Classical Figure Sculpture Competition

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America at the behest of its fine arts division, the Grand Central Academy of Art, is pleased to announce the winners of the second annual Classical Figure Sculpture Competition.

The first place winning work by Joshua Koffman

The competition took place from June 8-12, 2009 in the Grand Central Academy's Sculpture Atelier at 20 West 44th Street in Manhattan. It was made possible by a grant from the Morris and Alma Shapiro Fund of New York, New York.

The twelve finalists (selected  last April from more than 60 applicants) competed in a deliberately all- consuming 40 - hour, five-day competition, modeling a half-size figure from life.  The model held her pose  throughout the intensive week that defined the competitive concours.  Promptly at 5 pm Friday, the artist competitors put down their tools and the judging immediately commenced. 

Viewing the sculptures at the award ceremony

The  just session ensued with the winners announced at 8 pm to the assembled reception and presentation ceremony. The judges were 1) GCA founder, director and teacher, painter, Jacob Collins; 2) designer and ICA&CA co-founder and teacher, Richard Cameron ; 3) sculptor, educator and founder of Philadelphia's Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art, Stuart Feldman.

They are:   

First Place, $10,000     - Joshua Koffman
Second Place, $3,000   - Kate Brockman
Third Place, $2,000      - Jiwoong  Cheh  
Honorable Mentions    - Julia Levitina McGeehan and Angela Cunningham 

The first place winner lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied and presently teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. For more information on Mr. Koffman, as well as the other honorees please visit the GCA Web site.

First Place Winner Joshua Koffman at work

Juror Richard Cameron said, “This second competition was an unqualified success and I was pleased to serve as a judge. During our deliberation, the three of us had an engaging dialogue about naturalism versus classicism in contemporary figurative sculpture. The choice of Josh Koffman was unanimous as his piece emerged as the most coherent whole of style, form, and expression."

ICA&CA President, Paul Gunther, said “The sculpture competition like the new Atelier that houses it each year is now integral to our overall drive to sustain an interdisciplinary center for the study, appreciation, and advancement of classical art and architecture. The physical and psychological rigor of the competition takes its cue from the Beaux Arts model as an annual complement to the regular class schedule and includes both regular core students and artists from around the world who pay attention to our work from a kindred perspective. What it signifies is a growing community of students and practitioners, who seek an alternative to the more solipsistic basis of most of today's schools of art. One path to such an alternative is the slow and exacting development of technical skill nurtured above all by a lifelong examination of the human body as a centering point of creative departure. The Competition thus serves as an eventful metaphor for all we endeavor to impart as stewards of the classical course throughout history."   
For additional photographs of the twelve final pieces, as well as the competition itself,  along with more information about  all of the finalists,  visit the Grand Central Academy 's Web site at http://grandcentralacademy.classicist.org/sculpturecompetition.html .

For more information about all ICA&CA programs visit www.classicist.org  Members of the press can contact Paul Gunther at [email protected]

 

Isaac 'Takes the Gold'

Despite the small amount of designated funding presently available, the Institute continues making strides with the restoration and installation of its historic plaster casts collection, received so kindly five years ago from the de-accessioning Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Late last month, after a patient wait of more than a year, our consultant conservator, Treese Robb, delivered another of the six Ghiberti Gates of Paradise panels we are lucky enough to have.  (Four of the ten were absent at the time we made our initial 2003 curatorial inspection at the Bronx warehouse, where they’d been stored for decades-- see the catalog entry here for a more complete description.)

 It is the Isaac panel, which more than any other, features classical architecture as spatial context. Some refer to it as “#5” as it was created as the left-side panel of the gate’s middle band.  

As you see, what makes this intervention extraordinary is its gilded surface – as Ghiberti intended and created in the 15^th century and as now restored on the originals held today in sealed cases in Florence’s Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (www.operaduomo.firenze.it) just alongside Brunelleschi’s  masterpiece.

 At the end of the 19^th century when the Met procured its casts directly from the originals, the gild had long been eroded and covered by a succession of well-intended interventions and it appeared instead with its underlying bronze patina.  It was that surface that has therefore guided our own restoration, i.e. in careful evocation of the vaguely opalescent bronze surface that its great Met-engaged casters first intended.

The original gilded surface was revealed only in the later 20^th-century after the originals were replaced in situ and literally brought inside.

  

With all this conservation history in mind, I accepted Treese’s spirited (largely subsidized—bless her) proposal to treat one of the panels with like impulse—and Isaac seemed ideal given its architectural setting.

 ICA&CA stalwart and guiding light, Clem Labine, awarded the funds as per our ongoing if somewhat “under known” Adopt-a-Cast” enterprise and long, exacting labors ensued.

 I am pleased to cite Clem now that we have this literally brilliant teaching resource in hand. As per usual, he sums it up best:

 The transformation is magical. The bronze patina of the other restorations is excellent, but with the gilding, the Isaac panel absolutely comes alive. It is no longer just an artifact, but a piece of vibrant contemporary art—contemporary in the sense that it seems fresh from Ghiberti’s hand. Treese is a true artisan as her subtle variation in the levels of burnishing brings new levels of perceptible depth. The gold leaf emphasizes the play of light and shadow as can best assist future teaching –after all, the cast collection’s ongoing raison d’etre. The projecting areas of the relief are now so bright that the receding areas in shadow provide insightful contrast. In sum, it has come alive.

 Please come by soon for a personal inspection.

 

Paul Gunther