The Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden
Author: David
Date Posted: December 28, 2006
Winter Park, Florida's Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden
is one of the most elegant and respected venues for the art in the
American southeast. It is home to impressive collections of all
kinds and beautiful, peaceful grounds. The museum is on the National
Register of Historic Places.
Albin Polasek (1879-1965) is widely considered one of the most
important American sculptors most of the 20th century. Celebrated
in his own lifetime, Polasek strove to show the beauty of "movement,"
the flow of one mass into another. Polasek's ability to capture
the spirit of his subject was a major influence on a generation
of sculptors like Richmond Barthe and Ruth Sherwood. Upon his death
in 1965, Polasek was buried alongside first wife Ruth Sherwood in
Winter Park's Palms Cemetery, where the 12th Station of the Cross
(1939) is his monument. Albin Polasek was granted posthumously the
honor of Great Floridian and inducted into the Florida Artists Hall
of Fame in 2004.
Born in 1879 in what is now the Czech Republic, Polasek apprenticed
as a wood carver in Vienna before emigrating to the United States
at the age of 22 and eventually became an American citizen. Polasek
began his formal art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He produced Man Carving His Own Destiny
(1907) and Eternal Moment (1909), two of his earliest well-known
sculptures.
In 1961, the Albin Polasek Foundation was founded by Polasek and
his wife. Polasek had a deep appreciation for an uncomplicated aesthetic,
and as a result the gardens are quiet and subdued, utilizing gardening
art in classic form. The Foundation has added to the culture of
Winter Park and Central Florida by donating sculptures like Forest
Idyl and Emily Fountain to the City of Winter Park, Florida and
loaning Man Carving His Own Destiny to the Winter Park Public Library
long term. The Museum also provides art scholarships to the University
of Central Florida, Rollins College and Crealde School of Art.
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