Bruno Mankowski - Misplaced Pages

American sculptor (1902–1990)

Bruno Mankowski

Born	(1902-10-30)October 30, 1902 Berlin, Germany
Died	July 31, 1990(1990-07-31) (aged 87) DeBary, Florida, U.S.
Nationality	German-American
Education	Municipal & State Art Schools, Berlin Beaux Arts Institute of Design, New York City
Known for	Sculpture Medalist
Notable work	Genius of America pediment, U.S. Capitol Minerva Medal
Movement	Art Deco

Bruno Mankowski, (October 30, 1902 - July 31, 1990) was a German-born American sculptor, carver, ceramicist and medalist.

Executing the designs of other sculptors, he carved architectural ornament for the United States Capitol, the United States Supreme Court Building, and the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, in Washington, D.C. He carved Art Deco ornament for Rockefeller Center, and Neo-Gothic ornament for Riverside Church, both in New York City.

Mankowski was also a high-regarded medalist, receiving numerous commissions and awards.

Life and career

He was born in Berlin to Tadeusz Mankowski and Emily Kaselow. His father was an architectural sculptor, who gave him early art instruction, and under whom he later apprenticed. He studied under Joseph Thorak at the Municipal and State Art Schools in Berlin. Mankowski emigrated to the United States in 1928, and studied further at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in New York City. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1933.

Mankowski worked as a carver for John Donnelly & Company in the 1930s, a firm that supplied architectural sculpture for a number of Washington, D.C. federal buildings. He did work on the U. S. Supreme Court Building, although no specific project has been connected to him. Alongside carvers William Kapp, Roger Morigi and Otto Thieleman, Mankowski executed the work of sculptor Paul Jennewein for what is now the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building. This included The Four Elements—Earth, Air, Water, Fire (limestone, 1933–1936), a set of larger-than-life allegorical figures for the fifth floor lobby. The four men also carved Jennewein's Lege Atque Ordine Omnia Fiunt architrave (limestone, 1935), over the building's entrance.

In 1937, Germany committed to building a pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor of New York City, opposed Germany's participation in the exposition, and publicly proposed that the German Pavilion should be a "House of Horrors" of Nazi atrocities. Hitler, who seems to have planned a state visit to tour the fair, was insulted, and likely cancelled Germany's participation himself. In reaction, LaGuardia endorsed the idea of a Freedom Pavilion, that would exhibit works by German artists and exiles opposed to the Nazi Regime. The fair's Hall of Nations featured twenty identical pavilions in attached rows, ten on each side of the Court of Peace, culminating, at the head of the court, with the United States (Federal) Building. Each pavilion featured a colossal statue on its façade and a flagpole for the country's national flag. Mankowski created the colossal statue Shepherd—a "semi-nude male figure carrying sheep on shoulders; two sheep at feet"—for what may have been the Freedom Pavilion. Grover Whalen, president of the New York World's Fair Corporation, had worked hard to secure Germany's participation, and resented LaGuardia's interference. "In the end, fair officials prevented the pavilion from ever opening." Mankowski's statue stood on an empty building.

For the Works Progress Administration art program, Mankowski created The Farmer's Letter (1939), a plaster relief panel for the post office in Chesterfield, South Carolina. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, 1942-1945.

After the war, Michigan State University built a new Physics - Mathematics Building (1947-1949). A Modernist, functional building, its austerity was relieved by a bit of whimsy. Professor Thomas H. Osgood, Chair of the Physics Department, selected a number of illustrations from the History of Science, and these were incised into the limestone panels surrounding the building's entrance. Among the vignettes: Galileo and his solar system, Isaac Newton and his experiments with gravity, Benjamin Franklin and his kite, Marconi and his wireless telegraph, and Albert Einstein and the atom. Sculptor Carl L. Schmitz turned the illustrations into plaster models, and Mankowski carved them into the limestone.

Mankowski exhibited Pieta at the 14th Ceramic National Exhibition (1949), hosted by the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. This highly usual piece was a larger-than-life double head-and-bust, and depicted the Madonna embracing the dead Christ. It was awarded the 1949 United Clay Mines Prize. The ceramic exhibition traveled to Dallas and Los Angeles.

Mankowski won the 1949 design competition (and $1,500 prize) to create the medal commemorating the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Medallic Art Company. Its obverse featured an Art Deco relief bust of Minerva, Goddess of the Fine Arts, with a pantograph in the foreground, the device used to trace a relief for reduction. Its reverse featured the palm of a hand holding the same medal shown on the obverse. The work alluded to both the artistic inspiration and the mechanical process necessary to create a medal. Examples of the "Minerva Medal" are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and other museums.

U.S. Capitol

As part of the 1949-1950 restoration of the U.S. Capitol, prominent American sculptors were commissioned to create twenty-three relief busts of historic lawmakers for the House Chamber. Mankowski carved nine of the relief busts in marble, modeled by sculptors Gaetano Cecere, Jean de Marco, and Thomas Hudson Jones. The twenty-three relief busts were installed over the doors to the House Chamber.

Lee Lawrie modeled three relief panels for the Senate Chamber, including Courage, depicting a man battling with a serpent. Mankowski carved Courage in marble, 1950, and it was installed over the West Doorway of the Senate Chamber.

Under the supervision of Paul Manship, Mankowski created a replica of the Genius of America pediment for the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. Luigi Persico had designed and carved the original sculpture group in sandstone, 1825-1828. Carl L. Schmitz recreated the 130-year-old figures in plaster, restoring lost detail, including their eroded faces. These became the models from which Mankowski carved the marble replicas, 1959-1960.

Alphonso X "The Wise" (1950) by Gaetano Cecere, House Chamber
Simon de Montfort (1950) by Gaetano Cecere, House Chamber
Justinian (1950) by Gaetano Cecere, House Chamber
George Mason (1950) by Gaetano Cecere, House Chamber
Moses (1950) by Jean de Marco, House Chamber
St. Louis (1950) by Jean de Marco, House Chamber
Sir William Blackstone (1950) by Thomas Hudson Jones, House Chamber
Gregory IX (1950) by Thomas Hudson Jones, House Chamber
Hammurabi (1950) by Thomas Hudson Jones, House Chamber

Other works

In 1950, American Export Lines commissioned twin ocean liners from Bethlehem Steel's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Completed in 1951, they were christened SS Constitution and SS Independence, in honor of historic warships that had been built in Massachusetts. Mankowski was commissioned to recreate the warships' figureheads for the liners. The original figurehead of USS Constitution (1897) had been a figure of Hercules, designed and carved by John & Simeon Skillin of Boston. The original figurehead of USS Independence had a been a figure of a Native American chief, possibly Massasoit. Mankowski made life size models of his replica figureheads, but the plan for enlarging them and mounting them on the bows of the liners was abandoned. Instead, each model was displayed inside its liner as a work of art.

Mankowski created numerous designs for the Steuben Glass Company, notably the etched crystal Buffalo Bowl (1954).

Paul Jennewein and Mankowski reunited for a project at the National Library of Medicine, in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1961, Jennewein was commissioned to create a group portrait of the library's late founders: Dr. John Shaw Billings, Dr. Robert Fletcher and Dr. Fielding Garrison. His solution was essentially a larger-than-life drawing of the trio, its lines inscribed into the gray marble of library's lobby, then gold leafed. "The portrait busts of Billings, Fletcher, and Garrison, designed by Mr. C. Paul Jennewein, have been chiseled into the marble of the north wall of the lobby by Mr. Bruno Mankowski, an expert carver and an artist in his own right."

Malvina Hoffman modeled, and Mankowski carved in limestone, a roundel relief bust of Henry Clay Frick (1964 or 1965), for the façade of the Frick Fine Arts Building at the University of Pittsburgh.

Exhibitions, honors and awards

Mankowski exhibited at the National Academy of Design's annual exhibitions, 1940-1943, 1947-1950, 1956-1963. He exhibited semi-regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts's annual exhibitions, from 1934 to 1954. He exhibited at the Artists for Victory Exhibition, hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in December 1942.

Mankowski was elected to the National Sculpture Society in 1941, and elected a fellow in year. NSS awarded him its 1952 Louis Bennett Prize (for Minerva Medal), and its 1972 Gold Medal. Mankowski was elected a member of the American Numismatic Society in year, and was elected a fellow in year. ANS awarded him its 1960 J. Sanford Saltus Medal for lifetime achievement in medallic art, and its 1980 Numismatic Art Award. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1950. Mankowski was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1956, and elected an academician in 1968. The Allied Artists of America awarded him its 1960 Lindsay Morris Memorial Prize, and its 1964 Daniel Chester French Award.

Personal

Mankowski was living in Toronto, Canada in the 1970s. Art historian George Gurney interviewed him in preparation for the 1979 exhibition "Sculpture and the Federal Triangle," at the National Museum of American Art.

Mankowski retired to DeBary, Florida in 1980. He died there on July 31, 1990. His only survivor was a nephew.

Mankowski's papers are at the Archives of American Art.

Selected works

Sculptures

Seated Female Figure (medium, c.1934), height: 36 in (91 cm). Exhibited at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1934.
Relief: The Farmer's Letter (plaster, 1939), height: 30 in (76 cm), width: height: 84 in (210 cm), U.S. Post Office, Chesterfield, South Carolina, WPA relief panel
Shepherd (staff?, 1939), Hall of Nations, 1939 New York World's Fair
Head of American Working Girl (medium, c.1942). Exhibited at Artists for Victory Exhibition, 1942. Exhibited at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1947.
Relief: War Memorial Plaque (bronze, 1948), Macombs Junior High School, New York City
The Sisters (limestone, 1949), height: 16 in (41 cm). Exhibited at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1949.
Pieta (terra cotta, 1949). Winner of the United Clay Mines Prize, 14th Ceramic National Exhibition (1949), Carnegie Museum of Art
Hercules (cast stone?, 1950-1951), replica figurehead for SS Constitution
Massasoit (cast stone?, 1950-1951), replica figurehead for SS Independence
Relief: Lithuanian Flyers Memorial (aluminum and marble, 1957), Lithuania Square, Union Avenue & Hewes Street, Brooklyn, New York City A double portrait of Lithuanian-American pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, who attempted a 1933 trans-Atlantic flight from Brooklyn to Lithuania, but whose plane mysteriously went down over Germany.
Intimate Conversation (terra cotta, 1958), height: 29 in (74 cm). Winner of the Ceramic Sculpture Award, Twentieth Ceramic International Exhibition (1959), Syracuse Museum.
Young Woman Standing (terra cotta, 1959)
Kneeling Nude (Indiana limestone, 1970), height: 36 in (91 cm), Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida
Duckbill Platypus (marble, 1988), Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
Girl with Book (stone, year), height: 22.75 in (57.8 cm), National Academy of Design Museum, New York City
Head of a Man - Self-portrait (plaster, year)

Medals

New York World's Fair Medal (bronze, 1939), Equitable Life Assurance Company
50th Anniversary Medal of Medallic Art Company a.k.a. Minerva Medal (bronze, 1949). Winner of the National Sculpture Society's 1952 Louis Bennett Prize. Examples at Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and other museums.
Diamond Jubilee of Electric Light Medal (bronze, 1954)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Medal (bronze, 1968)
American Folklore Medal (bronze, 1969), National Gallery of Art (ex collection: Corcoran Gallery of Art) Society of Medalists - 79th Issue: features an image of Paul Bunyan on the obverse and Johnny Appleseed on the reverse.
George Washington Carver Medal (bronze, 1969), American Negro Commemorative Society
Science and Technical Award Medal (bronze, 1972). The obverse is a high relief after Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
George Gershwin Medal (bronze, 1972)
Asa Gray Medal (bronze, 1972), Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York University
Henry Aaron Medal (bronze, 1974)
Marqui de Lafayette Medal (bronze, 1977), American Bicentennial Commemorative Society

Paintings

Self-Portrait (oil on canvas, 1967), National Academy of Design Museum, New York City

Glass

Buffalo Bowl (etched crystal, 1954), Steuben Glass Company

Notes

"Ceramic fanciers will thrill to the varying designs, colors, and textures of the prize-winning sculptures in the exhibit. There is the monumental Pieta, heads of the Madonna and Christ in dark rough texture terra cotta, by Bruno Mankowski."
Lawrie wrote: "Courage symbolizes our nation, which unflinchingly battles Evil and vanquishes it. I used the biblical symbol for Evil, the serpent."
' "A striking feature of the Constitutions Main Foyer is a life-size recreation of the Hercules figurehead of the original Constitution, "Old Ironsides," done by the sculptor Bruno Mankowski in a non-combustible stone-like material that exactly simulates the appearance of the original wooden." "The Indian who greets passengers in the foyer was reproduced by sculptor Bruno Mankowski from drawings of the original figurehead intended for the Navy's U.S.S. Independence."
Hoffman wrote: "I prepared a plaster original, and the actual carving was done by Bruno Mankowski, since union regulations prevent sculptors from doing their own work when it is part of a building."
Citation: "To BRUNO MANKOWSKI, born in Germany, in recognition of a fine sculptor in stone and marble. His figure compositions are distinguished by robust modeling and sensitive interpretation of the forms of nature."

References

^ "Great Events of Science Are Cut in Stone," Lansing State Journal, August 14, 1948.
Bruno Mankowski from Metallic Art Collector.
^ Proceedings of the American Numismatic Society, Annual Meeting, vol. 102 (ANS, 1960), p. 102.
F. Turner Reuter Jr., Animal & Sporting Artists in America (Middleberg, VA: The National Sporting Library, 2008), p. 434.
^ "Bruno Mankowski," The National Commemorative Society Newsletter, vol. 10, no. 6 (July 1972), p. 6.
Opitz, Glenn B., editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1986.
^ Mary Jean Smith Madigan, Steuben Glass: An American Tradition in Crystal (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1982), p. 198.
^ U.S. Department of Justice, The Robert F. Kennedy Building: Celebrating Art and Architecture on the 75th Anniversary, 1934–2009 (PDF)
^ James J. Fortuna, "Fascism, National Socialism, and the 1939 World's Fair," Fascist and National Socialistic Antiquities and Materialities from the Interwar Era to the Present Day, vol. 8, no. 2 (Dec 2019), pp. 179-218.
Freedom Pavilion: Germany Yesterday - Germany Tomorrow (New York World's Fair booklet, 1939).
"Hall of Nations - Statues - South S." New York World's Fair 1939-1940 Records, Manuscript and Archives Division, New York Public Library.
Photograph: Shepherd (2nd from right):
Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1984, p. 228.
Bruno Mankowski (1902 - 1990) from NNP, Washington University Library, St. Louis.
^ Darlene Salman, "History of the Physics Department: Physics - Mathematics Building (1949)," Physics and Astronomy Newsletter, vol. 6 (Fall 2004), pp. 4-5.(PDF)
Carnegie Magazine, vol. 24, no. (January 1950), p. 224.
American Ceramic Society Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 12 (December 1949), p. 476.
^ "The Fourteenth Ceramic National," American Artist, vol. 14, no.1 (January 1950), p. 43.
^ "Bruno Mankowski," The Medallist, vol. 7, no. 3 (December 1990), p. 8.
50th Anniversary Medal of Medallic Art Company from SIRIS.
Alphonso X "The Wise" from SIRIS.
Moses from SIRIS.
Blackstone from SIRIS.
House Documents, Volume 11614 (United States Congress, 1953), p. 39.
Courage from United States Senate Art Collection.
Courage (sculpture) from SIRIS.
Genius of America from SIRIS.
Architect of the Capitol, Under the Direction of the Joint Committee on the Library, Compilation of Works of Art and Other Objects in the United States Capitol, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1965, p. 378.
^ "Today's Artists Portray Old Sailing Ship Art on America's Newest Vessels," Motor Boating, vol. 93, no. 3 (March 1954), p. 37.
Bow Décor from USS Constitution Museum.
The Nautical Gazette, New York, vol. 145, no. 1 (January 1951), pp. 19-21.
Interiors Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4 (April 1951), p. 113.
National Library of Medicine Annual Report for the Fiscal Year 1961 (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, September 15, 1961), p. 2.
Founders of the Library from National Library of Medicine.
National Library of Medicine News vol. 16, 1961, p. 8.
Portrait of Henry Clay Frick from SIRIS.
Henry Clay Frick from University Art Gallery.
Malvina Hoffman, Yesterday Is Tomorrow: A Personal History (University of Michigan Press, 1965), p. 371.
Falk, Peter Hastings, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design, 1901 - 1950, Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1990, p. 344.
^ Falk, Peter Hastings, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Volume 3, 1914 - 1968, Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1989, p. 308.
^ Artists for Victory: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art (New York: Artists for Victory, 1942), p. 29.
Historic Members Archived 2017-06-29 at the Wayback Machine from National Sculpture Society.
Awards from American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Volume 1 (New York: 1951), p. 10.
National Academicians from NAD.
George Gurney, Sculpture and the Federal Triangle (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985).
George Gurney interviews with sculptors from Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
^ The Orlando Sentinel, August 5, 1990
Bruno Mankowski papers Archives of American Art.
The Farmer's Letter from SIRIS.
The Sisters from PAFA.
Lithuania Square from NYC Parks.
Lisa W. Foderaro, "Dotting the Parks, Monuments to the Famous or Forgotten," The New York Times, January 9, 2014.
American Artist, vol. 23, no. 1 (January 1959), p. 31.
Annual Exhibition of the Allied Artists of America, Volume 46 (Allied Artists of America, 1959).
Kneeling Nude from SIRIS.
Duckbill Platypus from SIRIS.
Girl with Book from SIRIS.
^ David T. Alexander, Medals of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University (David Thomason Alexander, 2019), pp. 138-139.
Minerva from MMA.
The Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, vol. 34, no. 1 (January 1959), p. 501.
American Folklore from SIRIS.
Society of Medalists - 79th Issue from SIRIS.
Russ MacKendrick, Numismatics: Battle of Saratoga Medal, The New York Times, January 15, 1978, p. D-36.
Bruno Mankowski from National Portrait Gallery.

External links

Bruno Mankowski at Find a Grave

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