40 Facts About Avard Fairbanks

Avard Tennyson Fairbanks was a 20th-century American sculptor.

Additionally, Avard Fairbanks sculpted over a dozen Abraham Lincoln-themed sculptures and busts among which the most well-known reside in the US Supreme Court Building and Ford's Theatre Museum.

Avard Fairbanks taught sculpture at several universities and attended medical school at the University of Michigan where he earned a doctorate in anatomical studies in order to better represent the human body in his art.

Avard Tennyson Fairbanks was born on March 2,1897, in Provo, Utah.

Avard Fairbanks was the last and eleventh child of the artist John B Fairbanks and Lilly Annetta Huish.

Avard Fairbanks was introduced to art by his father and his brother, John Leo Avard Fairbanks.

Avard Fairbanks's first piece of art was a small, clay rabbit that won first prize in the 1909 Utah State Fair.

Avard Fairbanks joined his father in New York City to copy art pieces at the Metropolitan Museum, where he was reluctantly received by the curators due to his inexperience.

Avard Fairbanks attended the Art Students League of New York on scholarship at age 13, instructed by James Earle Fraser.

Avard Fairbanks returned to Utah after 18 months studying in New York, to prepare to study art abroad.

In 1913, Avard Fairbanks studied at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, instructed by Jean Antoine Injalbert.

Avard Fairbanks became the youngest student admitted to the French Salon; however, his studies were cut short due to World War I Fairbanks and his father escaped Europe on the last train out of Paris and the last spots available on the boat Ansonia leaving Liverpool, returning to New York with only fifteen cents between the two of them.

Avard Fairbanks took a sabbatical to study at Yale University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and returned to instruct at University of Oregon.

Avard Fairbanks was offered a Guggenheim Fellowship to study art in Europe.

Avard Fairbanks created work for Arciconfraternita della Misericordia during this time as well as sculptures in the theme of spring and motherhood.

In 1933, Avard Fairbanks, joined by his father and brother, created the Mormon Display for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Avard Fairbanks sculpted, his brother made stained glass, and his father painted.

Avard Fairbanks did this in order to better and more accurately represent the human body in his work.

Avard Fairbanks began to use anatomical techniques in his subsequent artworks.

Avard Fairbanks was appointed professor of sculpture at the University of Michigan in 1930 and taught sculpture there until 1948.

In 1947, Fairbanks created the Fine Arts Department at the U of U He served as dean and professor of Fine Art at the College of Fine Arts at the U of U from 1948 to 1955.

Avard Fairbanks retired as dean in 1955, but continued teaching at the U of U for 10 years.

Avard Fairbanks died in Salt Lake City on January 1,1987.

Avard Fairbanks sculpted the statues of the Angel Moroni for the LDS Church on the Washington, DC, Denver Colorado, Jordan River Utah, Mexico City Mexico, Seattle Washington, and Sao Paulo Brazil temples.

Avard Fairbanks sculpted Tragedy of Winter Quarters in the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery at the Winter Quarters Historical Site.

Many of the sculptures on Temple Square in Salt Lake City are by Avard Fairbanks, including the Three Witnesses Monument.

Avard Fairbanks made a statue of Lycurgus and was consequently knighted by King Paul of Greece.

Avard Fairbanks did multiple statues of Abraham Lincoln at Ford Theater and the US Supreme Court and The Resolute Lincoln at Lincoln's New Salem.

Avard Fairbanks created the Pegasus sculpture in the northeast garden at the Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Avard Fairbanks created an Ezra Meeker bust for the University of Oregon and a tabernacle door for the Altar of St Mary's Cathedral in Eugene, Oregon.

Additionally, Avard Fairbanks constructed a 200-pound bronze medallion to commemorate the Oregon Trail.

Avard Fairbanks created a bust of Roscoe Pound in 1981 for the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

Avard Fairbanks was a son of John B Fairbanks, an artist who had studied in Paris art academies and was briefly an art professor at Brigham Young Academy.

Avard Fairbanks's mother, Lilly Annetta Huish, died on May 12,1898, about a year after he was born as a result of an injury related to a fall she had while she was carrying the fourteen-month-old Fairbanks.

Avard's brother, J Leo Fairbanks, was an artist who had studied both painting and sculpture in the Paris art academies; Fairbanks considered his brother his first instructor and his mentor.

Jonathan Leo Avard Fairbanks was the curator of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the early 1990s.

Avard Fairbanks was a member of many organizations and societies, including National Sculpture Society, the Architectural League of New York, the International Institute of Arts and Letters, the Protetore Della Contrada Della Torre da Siena, Italy, and the Circolo Delgi Artisti di Firenzi.

Avard Fairbanks was an honorary member of the Society of Oregon Artists.

Avard Fairbanks was awarded Herbert Adams Memorial Medal by the National Sculpture Society for his contributions to American sculpture.

Avard Fairbanks received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Lincoln College and the Lincoln Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University.