31 Facts About Marshall Fredericks

Marshall Fredericks's family moved to Florida for a short time and then settled in Cleveland, where he grew-up.

Marshall Fredericks graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1930 and journeyed abroad on a fellowship to study with Carl Milles in Sweden.

In 1945, Marshall Fredericks was honorably discharged from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.

In 1936, Fredericks won a competition to create the Levi L Barbour Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle in Detroit.

Marshall Fredericks was the recipient of many US and foreign awards and decorations for his artistic and humanitarian achievements.

Marshall Fredericks exhibited his work nationally and internationally and many of his works are in national, civic, and private collections.

In 1955, Marshall Fredericks created the Wayne County seal, which is still used today and is featured on the county's flag.

Marshall Fredericks designed the seal while making the Spirit of Detroit statue, as a seal was part of the work and the county did not have a seal at the time.

In 1957, Marshall Fredericks was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1961.

Marshall Fredericks was one of six artists commissioned to design sculpture for Northland Shopping Center in Southfield, Michigan.

Marshall Fredericks said that he simply wanted to make a sculpture of a boy and bear because it would be fun.

Marshall Fredericks was commissioned to sculpt a 6-foot-tall crucifix, but instead designed this 28-foot, full-scale model, for a bronze to be placed at the Indian River Catholic Shrine in Indian River, Michigan.

Marshall Fredericks is quoted explaining the Freedom of the Human Spirit:.

In 1983, Marshall Fredericks donated a casting of the work to his adopted home of Birmingham, Michigan for that city's fiftieth anniversary.

In 1936, the sculpture won first prize in a national competition, and as a result, Marshall Fredericks became well known as a public sculptor.

Since the gazelle is not native to Michigan, Marshall Fredericks made four animals that are, and placed them around the gazelle on Belle Isle.

Marshall Fredericks sculpted the gazelle in a characteristic movement called wheeling, which is when an animal quickly changes direction while being pursued by a predator.

Marshall Fredericks said this sculpture illustrates Aesop's Fable of "The Lion and the Mouse".

Marshall Fredericks captured the story in a single image by contrasting the tiny mouse with the much larger lion.

When Marshall Fredericks was a teenager his inspiration was Lord Byron, the nineteenth-century Romantic poet who became associated with a haughty, melancholy mood.

Marshall Fredericks seems to suffer inner turmoil suggestive of the melancholic life of the poet.

Marshall Fredericks is seated upon a 10-foot sphere, encrusted with a multitude of stars of various magnitudes set in a pattern of the bright-star constellations of the celestial system.

Marshall Fredericks's hair, designed with jagged lightning-like forms, is studded with clusters of multi-pointed stars.

Marshall Fredericks created a gold anodized aluminum Sculptured Clock on the building that was completed in 1957, two years before the fountain's installation.

Not only did Marshall Fredericks waive his creative fee for this sculpture, but it actually cost him money to produce.

The pose Marshall Fredericks' Thinker assumes is a direct reference to Rodin's sculpture; however, Marshall Fredericks' replacement of Rodin's heroic male nude with a bemused chimpanzee is a thought provoking variation on the earlier statue and reveals his fondness for primates.

Marshall Fredericks indicated that when Booth saw the compact composition of the chimp stroking his chin, he commented that it was not like Rodin would have done, but Booth was sure the chimp was thinking much more interesting thoughts than most of us.

In nature, these two animals are enemies Marshall Fredericks portrays the two in a gentle humanistic way, stressing tolerance.

Marshall Fredericks resided in Birmingham, Michigan, with his wife Rosalind Cooke until his death April 4,1998.

Marshall Fredericks maintained studios at 4113 North Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak and on East Long Lake Road in Bloomfield Hills until his death.

Marshall Fredericks's estate donated the contents of both studios to the Marshall M Fredericks Sculpture Museum on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan.