Schweitzer/Bach, a Sculpture

Bronze by Alan LeQuire A sculpture of Dr. Albert Schweitzer and J. S. Bach is planned for unveiling sometime in the future. The sculpture will be placed permanently on the grounds of Vanderbilt University. Long after the echoes of the Symposium's words and music fade, this tribute in bronze will be there as a constant reminder of Symposium 2000, and a lasting memorial to Albert Schweitzer and J. S. Bach. Best known for his monumental Athena Parthenos, the largest indoor sculpture in the western world, Alan LeQuire began his artistic career at the age of eleven. By the end of his high school years he was concentrating principally on sculpture, but at Vanderbilt he studied English literature and art history rather than studio art. In his early twenties he began an apprenticeship to Milton Hebald in Italy, and with guidance from him and master craftsmen of Italian bronze foundries, LeQuire discovered both practical and philosophical approaches to figurative sculpture. Returning to the United States, LeQuire completed the Master of Arts degree at the University of North Carolina, where he continued to study figurative sculpture with Peter Agostini. Within a year of his 1981 graduation he won the commission to recreate for the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, the lost Athena Parthenos by fifth-century Greek sculptor Pheidias. Over the eight years it took to complete, the Athena project became the most difficult, challenging, and rewarding commission any figurative sculptor could hope for - and hope to survive. The unveiling of Athena Parthenos in 1990 made Alan LeQuire a celebrity and attracted favorable notices from classical scholars, archaeologists, and art critics. LeQuire's fame will certainly be further enhanced when Schweitzer/Bach is unveiled before an international gathering of Schweitzer and Bach scholars and enthusiasts. Like the classical and Renaissance artists to whom he has directly apprenticed himself, LeQuire believes that the human figure is the single artistic subject to which all viewers inevitably respond. Like his forebears he is specially concerned with the relation of humanity to the world it inhabits. For him, the world is meaningful, and the human figure serves as the primary carrier of meaning. His sculpture is on the human scale, a work made by and intended for the inspiration of human beings.

For Further Information Contact: SYMPOSIUM2000@WEBTV.NET
copyright 1998-2000 Symposium2000

This site is part of the Hague Appeal for Peace webring.
[ Previous | Next | Random Site | List Sites ]