The National Sculpture Society (NSS) will present the 2024 Sculpture House Annual Award to Fred X Brownstein. The award recognizes those who support figurative sculpture.

Chad Fisher, the Charlotte Colby Danly Sculpture Chair and Director of Sculpture at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, says “Brownstein continues to carry with broad shoulders the Italian tradition of marble carving. A master carver and sculptor who has spent over 50 years molding stone and clay, is a refreshing presence and a reminder that true fine art takes time, commitment, and care to evolve.”

Brownstein trained and worked in Italy for sixteen years. He learned traditional marble carving techniques at Enzo Pasquini’s sculpture studio in Querceta. Among Brownstein’s skill set is the use of the traditional “machinetta” or pointing device. In 2022, Brownstein gave a presentation at Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site, using the pointing device. The resulting video has been viewed over 18,000 times on the NSS YouTube channel, creating awareness of the specific skills and knowledge sculptors need.

When mounting an exhibition on the work Antonio Canova, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) teamed with Brownstein to bring 200-year-old techniques alive. A camera crew filmed Brownstein for about three hundred hours as he took on the challenge of copying Canova’s sculpture “Venus” using Canova’s techniques. The two resulting films provide a deeper appreciation for carving by hand; an appreciation needed as digital art forms grow in popularity. Together, the films have been viewed over one-million times and the ‘Time Lapse Art’ video won two 2024 Webby Awards (WebTV); both the People’s Voice and Webby Winner Art & Experimental.

Brownstein studied at Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) and the San Francisco Art Institute (San Francisco, CA). In 1971, he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Karolyi Foundation in Vence, France. His public sculpture commissions include a baseball and a soccer player for Kiersky Athletic Fields MJCC (2016 Memphis, TN); Mississippi Goal, a young man reading, for the Henry M. Seymour Library (1990 Indianola, MS) and Monumento ai Caduti (1985 Stazzema, Italy). From 1999-2005, Brownstein taught at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Connecticut. He has lectured at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred University, Middlebury College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Williams College, among others. He holds workshops with SAX Stone Carving, Brookgreen Gardens and Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

In 2002, Bruner Barrie, president of Sculpture House, along with Jack North, former president of Chavant and Marc Fields, president of The Compleat Sculptor, established the Sculpture House Annual Award. Past recipients of the annual award include author and historian Donald Martin Reynolds, PhD, and former curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, George Gurney, PhD and Rebecca Reynolds, Executive Director of Manship Artists Residency.

In 1893, leading U.S. sculptors and architects founded the National Sculpture Society to “spread the knowledge of good sculpture” throughout the country. The award presentation will take place on September 21 and is part of the Society’s Sculpture Celebration, September 19-22, 2024, in Indianapolis, IN. For more information about Fred X Brownstein, the awards dinner, or the Society, please contact Gwen Pier: gpier@nationalsculpture.org or 212-764-5645 ext. 101.