2022 01 06 – 2022 06 15Prestigious library sculpture competitiononline
S U B M I T
S P O N S O R
Winner and Runners-Up have been announced!
![Heather Personett [NM] : Portrait bust of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) [RA ca.1877-1907], 2022.](https://salmagundiorg.lightningbasecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2_PersonettASG_leftcornerblack-190x300.jpg)
Congratulations to Heather Personett for her fantastic work, Portrait of Augustus Saint-Gaudens! The winning bust and our 9 runners-up will be exhibiting in our Salmagundi Smith library sculpture competition exhibition in 2023.
One of the jurors has stated after jurying, “It has been a fascinating and educational experience. I feel very honored that you asked me to judge.
I have certainly tried to do justice to all the entries. Huge efforts were made by them all.”
Another juror stated “It was a very positive experience, you couldn’t not have selected a better panel of judges. Everyone was focused on making choices that would benefit the Salmagundi club and bringing a successful conclusion to this competition.”
Alexander Katlan, chairman of Salmagundi’s Smith library says, “I second this thought and believe all the efforts and hard work are reflected in the fine sculptures submitted.“
O B J E C T I V E
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Salmagundi, one award winner will receive $10,000 to create and sculpt a bust for the Salmagundi library bookcase, cast in bronze! The award winner will be exhibited in the Salmagundi library with their studies and maquette.
Other participants of the competition will exhibit their maquettes in an alternate gallery at Salmagundi, available for sale at the sculptors’ discretion.
P R I Z E S
First prize bronze bust commission | $10,000
Top ten sculptor finalists | $200 to cover art materials
…and up to an additional $6000 for casting the bust in bronze at a foundry, mutually chosen by both the sculptor and Salmagundi Club!
A R T I S T E L I G I B I L I T Y
Open to Salmagundi members and non-members.
All schools of art, ateliers, academies, and artists national and international are eligible.
Commission winner will be required to join Salmagundi club.
Limited to 70 artists on a first-come, first-served basis.
For waitlist, please contact Alexander Katlan at (718) 445-7458 or alexkatlan@aol.com
F E E S
$65 | Registration for the Competition
D E A D L I N E
June 15, 2022
via online submission only
Sculptors may send in their submission earlier than the deadline if they so choose.
No original maquette or studies should be sent to the Salmagundi Club.
All maquettes, designs, and sculpture compositions will be done in the artist’s studio and not on-site at the Salmagundi Club.
S U B M I S S I O N P R O C E S S
The bust should be either a historical or contemporary member from the Salmagundi Club from 1871 to today.
H I S T O R I C A L | Examples of historical members are Augustus Saint Gaudens, Stanford White, William Merritt Chase, Theodore Robinson, John LaFarge, Louis C. Tiffany Child Hassam, or Norman Rockwell. International artists are also applicable such as Anders Zorn, Alphonse Mucha. Click for a list of historic members who currently don’t have busts present in Salmagundi. A roster of our historic members can also be found on our website.
C O N T E M P O R A R Y | Contemporary members may be any member of the Salmagundi Club. Preference is given to molding the bust from life.
- All sculptors must purchase a ticket on Eventbrite ($65) to register for the competition.
- Sculptors must choose one of the two (historical or contemporary) and may not submit both.
- The bust may be either head, or both head and shoulders.
Sculptors should keep in mind that the final bust including its base, is to measure 18″ – 24″ high, 8″ – 12″ wide, and 10″ in depth. The bust should have a finely sculpted base. - Artists must submit images in JPG format of their maquettes. The maquettes must be 1/2 to 3/4 life-sized busts, to be made of plastelene or clay. Please note that the maquettes will be exhibited at Salmagundi.
- Sculptors should submit examples of other sculptural work, as well as the written proposal for the commission with descriptions and explanation of the Salmagundi member depicted.
- All materials must be sent to alexkatlan@aol.com by the deadline. Only serious submissions of the highest professional level will be considered.
F I N A L D E C I S I O N
- The commission award announcement will be made before or on June 30, 2022 relaying jury’s decision, having considered both the sculptor’s vision and ability. A deposit payment of one-third will be sent to the sculptor.
- The final winning bust will be casted in bronze at the foundry of the sculptor’s choice in consultation with the Salmagundi Club. The sculptor may choose to either (a) deliver a plaster bust with faux bronze patina to Salmagundi and mold of the bust to the foundry, or (b) the artist may deliver both items to Salmagundi. Salmagundi Library will pay up to $6000 for the casting of the bust in bronze.
- The sculptor is to deliver the bronze bust to the Salmagundi Club by February 1, 2023 for installation in the library. Both the sculpture and the maquette will be exhibited at Salmagundi. The final payment will be paid to the sculptor upon delivery.
If shipping the winning bust to Salmagundi, shipping will be paid for by the Salmagundi library. - Unveiling the sculpture will take place at the Club’s library reception.
- The sculptor retains copyright to the winning bust (1st edition).
The winning commission is subject to Salmagundi Club’s board of directors. If the winning maquette is not accepted by the Salmagundi board, a fee of $500 will be paid to the winning artist. The deposit of one third paid to the artist will not need to be returned, as it reflects the time and materials already consumed.
The Salmagundi library reserves the right to reject any commission chosen by the panel of judges if the maquettes are not considered of the highest standards.
S T A T E M E N T OF T H E L I B R A R Y
Since its inception in 1891, the Salmagundi Library has been a signature part of the Salmagundi Club experience. For early artist members in the 19th-century, the Library provided important visual references to produce illustrations for pre-photography magazines and newspapers. During the 20th-century, the Salmagundi Library offered educational lectures, dinners, auctions and other events that brought together Club members and the local community in an intimate space. In the 21st-century, the Library continues to build on the 20th-century events and provides a serene oasis from the hustle and bustle of the world. The Library opens a window into the lives of the earliest artist members and attracts new membership to our Club.
Cash award for Library Commission is made possible through the generous donation of a private Salmagundi Club member.
Special thanks to the following for their assistance:
Alexander Katlan, Vice- Chair Landon Clay, Carole Teller, Jacob Collins, Justine Kalb, Annie Patt, Dylan Gillespie, Donna Prizzi, Tahseen Ali Kahn, Dan Bunn, Brian West, Patrick Okrasinski, Tyler Moore, Claudia Seymour, Roger Rossi, Liz Beard, Regina McGrade, Joan Forbes, Brenda Tribush, Richard Rosenblatt, Donna McCormick, Barbara Genco and Bill Indursky.
P A N E L O F J U R O R S
The panel of jurors are distinguished members of the national and international art scene.
Jacob Collins is a leading figure in the contemporary revival of classical painting. Collins’s style of painting is considered Classical Realism, and his subject matter focuses on the figure, portraiture, still life and landscape as well as the occasional interior. Collins is the founder of the Water Street Atelier, The Grand Central Academy of Art, and the Hudson River Fellowship. Jacob Collins is president and a resident artist member of the Salmagundi Club. Collins’ drawings and paintings have been shown with museums and galleries in North America and Europe, and he has been commissioned to paint portraits of J. Paul Getty Jr., President George H. W. Bush and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Robert Bodem graduated cum laude from Boston University with a undergraduate degree in Sculpture (1995) and Master of Fine Arts (1998). Upon graduation, Bodem was awarded the prestigious Alert S. and Ester B. Kahn Award for his talent in figurative sculpture. This facilitated Bodem’s move to Florence, Italy where he founded the Florence Academy of Art’s sculpture program. Under his directorship, this rose to become one of the world’s premier programs to study naturalistic figurative sculpture and Bodem is recognised for nurturing a generation of highly prolific sculptors. Now the Founding Director of the Athens Sculpture Atelier, Bodem is currently based in Athens where he continues to sculpt, teach and re-write his internationally celebrated pedagogical concept of “Drawing in Space’’. This fully comprehensive methodology is for sculptors of all abilities, working in any situation. Bodem’s own award-winning sculptures are held in collections throughout the world.
Grzegorz Gwiazda – Born in 1984, he studied at the Academies of Fine Arts in Poznań and Warsaw (Poland), and as a scholar at the Accademia di Belle Arte di Brera in Milan (Italy). In 2009, he graduated summa cum laude from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2010 he has been conducting classes at the University of M. Grzegorzewska in Warsaw. In 2014, he defended his doctor’s thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and in 2019 he earned his higher doctorate degree. Since 2015 he has been teaching at the Barcelona Academy of Art.
He was granted a scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for 2008/9 and a scholarship funded by Inicjatywa ENTRY. In 2010 and 2015, his works were awarded in the international figurative art competition organized by Fundació de les Arts and els Artistes. In 2018, he was granted the Arteon art magazine award.
His works are in numerous collections around the world, including the permanent collection of the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern in Barcelona.
Robbie Wraith R.P. left school at 16 and was invited by Pietro Annigoni to study with him in Florence and London: this association lasted until Annigoni‘s death in 1988. He avoided all art schools and ateliers.
He has had 38 solo exhibitions; many distinguished portrait sitters include Her Majesty the Queen, Nelson Mandela, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Lord Chief Justice (UK), Supreme Court Judges (UK), members of the House of Lords, Roger Waters, Sir Roger Penrose, and many others.
His work is in the collections of HM the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Vatican, The Royal Collection Windsor, the National Trust, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Chatsworth , the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Grafton, the MCC, Eton College, Blarney Castle, Caledon Castle, Fondazione Fremantle – and many others.
Countless mixed exhibitions have included the Royal Academy, the National Portrait Gallery, “Princes as Patrons” and “Travels with the Prince” which focused on travelling with the Prince of Wales and other projects commissioned by the Prince.
David Williams-Ellis was born in Northern Ireland. He has a distinguished artistic pedigree; his great uncle was Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect who created the Italianate village of Portmeiron in Wales, UK.
Having had the rare opportunity to study sculpture at high school, and with a support of a creative family, at 18 David sought out a classical training in Florence under the legendary octogenarian drawing teacher, Nerina Simi. From there he went on to be an apprentice wood carver and then joined a community of marble carvers in Pietresanta beneath the Carrara Mountains in Tuscany.
David Williams-Ellis’ sculptures are inspired by the romanticism of Rodin and Bourdelle, they are noted for their classical balance and poise and above all for a sense of movement and vitality captured within the form. It’s the powerful energy of David’s work that thrusts its way beyond the ornamental and gives it its definitive contemporary edge.
Once David’s reputation was cemented, he travelled around Britain undertaking multiple commissions for portrait busts. Exhibitions followed in the UK, Europe, California, Japan, and Hong Kong.
David’s biggest project to date, the D-Day Sculpture, was unveiled in June 2019 in Normandy at the memorial which commemorates the 22,442 who fell there under British command.
Today he is as busy as ever, living and working in the UK on several large commissions both public and private.
Alicia Ponzio (b.1974) began her career as a Lieutenant in the United States’ Navy Nurse Corps. After experimenting with various mediums in figurative art, she found her voice in sculpture and made the decision to pursue it. She completed her artistic training at the Florence Academy of Art (FAA) in Florence, Italy, where she completed the Sculpture Program in 2008. She was then the director of the Artistic Anatomy and Ecorche Sculpture programs, as well as a figure drawing instructor, at the FAA until 2011, when she returned to the United States and set up her studio in downtown San Francisco.
Alicia brings life to her bronzes and plasters, focusing on the abstract movement of forms as embodied in the human figure, as well as the subtle shades of human emotion. She favors asymmetry, irregularity, and variety in design: qualities that suggest a human touch. Her figure compositions and portraits have received recognition and honors from several organizations including the Art Renewal Center, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, The Portrait Society of America, The California Art Club and The National Sculpture Society from which Alicia received the Alex J. Ettl Grant in 2016. Her work ranges from miniature portraits to larger scale single figure and multi-figure compositions. She works extensively in plaster to achieve her effect, and casts the final product in bronze.
Donna Hassler is the Executive Director of Chesterwood, the former summer home and studio of one of America’s foremost sculptors, Daniel Chester French, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and a museum professional for close to 40 years both as a director and curator. From 2008-2021, Hassler was also the Administrator of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In April 2018, she was awarded an affiliated fellowship of the National Trust for Historic Preservation at the American Academy in Rome, where she retraced the footsteps of French as a young sculptor studying in Italy. Hassler was trained as an Art Historian specializing in 19th and 20th century American art and was the co-author of American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865, Volume I, 2000, and American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born Between 1865 and 1885, Volume II, 2001. Before working at Chesterwood, she served as the Executive Director of the Rensselaer County Historical Society; Acting Director and Curator of Collections & Exhibitions at The Hyde Collection; and Curatorial Assistant in the Department of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She holds advanced degrees in Art History from George Washington University, the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with a certification in Museum Studies from NYU and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Graduate Center of the City of New York.