Just so you know, "Bodies in Stone" has outgrown this website.

In March 2007, I was lucky to find a smart and dedicated collaborator, Einar Einarsson Kvaran. We've both a little obsessed with architectural sculpture in America, so we wrote a book called

A Field Guide to Architectural Sculpture in America

For more on the book, visit www.archsculptbooks.com.

 

 

Einar and I pooled our resources, and identified about 800 buildings in America and well over 1000 original photographs, linking those buildings back and forth to the 143 sculptors and 25 major architects represented so far.

The research has already yielded up unexpected overall historical patterns and connections and insights:

- we've constructed a well-rounded narrative. There's a definite beginning around 1870, a climax in Chicago in 1893 leading to a sort of Golden Age, a period of popularity and transition and innovation through the 1910's that, in turn, leads to a period of simultaneous brilliant experimentation and lowered standards in the 1920s. This transitional 'moment' lasts longer than you'd think. It's in the 1920s that the thing becomes truly American. And then there's a definite ending, around 1935

- we've named the top twelve most significant sculptors, based on their influence and number of commissions

- we've identified collaborative patterns between architects and sculptors, the most important of which (Goodhue and Lawrie) spanned two decades and fourteen major projects

- we know where to find the most architectural sculpture, neglected examples , and the best-worst-and-most-unusual

- there's even a Frank Lloyd Wright angle. We can trace the German modernist technique from Franz Metzner through Frank Lloyd Wright, to Richard Bock and Iannelli. This sheds light on the sought-after "conventionalization" of the human body into workable geometric contituents.

For more on the book, visit www.archsculptbooks.com.