Lot 99: WILLARD HIRSCH (1905-1982) TERRA COTTA BAS RELIEF

Willard Newman Hirsch (Charleston SC 1905-1982) Terra Cotta Bas Relief portrait of Katherine Muschick Schneider by Willard N. Hirsch circa 1982. Incised artist's signature and date. The bust is of Hirsch's apprentice and student, Katherine M. Schneider, who studied with him for 2 years. Terra cotta on cradled wooden panel, Medallion: 11.25" diameter, Backed size: 17" h x 16" w. Weight 7 pds. PROVENANCE: The Estate of Artist Katherine M. Schneider. Willard Newman Hirsch (1905-1982) was an American sculptor. Born in Charleston in 1905, Hirsch graduated from Charleston High in 1923. He began at the College of Charleston, but his father’s death required him to go to work without graduating. Five years later, he moved to New York City, and there, an aunt saw him making figures with molten candle drippings. Recognizing his talent, she paid his tuition to the National Academy of Design. He then took classes at Manhattan’s Beaux-Arts Institute and maintained a studio for a decade, winning prizes and exhibiting around the country. After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, Hirsch returned to Charleston in 1944 and opened a studio at 17 Exchange Street, where he built Charleston’s first kiln for casting plaster and terra-cotta. While creating his own art work, he also taught adults and children. He taught art for many years at the College of Charleston and the Gibbes Museum of Art school, helping to establish the Charleston Art School with painters William Halsey and Corrie McCallum from 1953 to 1965. He married Mordenai Raisin, daughter of Beth Elohim’s beloved Rabbi Jacob S. Raisin, and they raised son Jacob (Jack) and daughter Jane on Broad Street. Hirsch, who died in 1982, had a reputation as a curmudgeon with strong opinions. Yet he was also a punster who appreciated wit, and his laughter was a gift. In fact, it may be his whimsy that is most enjoyed around the city. Anyone who’s sipped from the fountain at the Battery and noticed the Little Dancer’s bare toes or seen Falling Angel throwing her arms up in glee behind the Gibbes has glimpsed Hirsch at his playful best. “Never make ashtrays,” he stormed at his students. For Hirsch, sculpture was only to portray the living. He loved all creatures, creating a tiger at Clemson and bulldog at SC State and turned Charleston’s worship of ancestors into a pun by carving a bas relief of four bears, calling them his “forebears.” Just as he made clay and bronze beings seem alive, so Hirsch animated the city of Charleston with his humor and love of the human condition. REF: Charleston Magazine 2012. His works are included in the collections of Brookgreen Gardens, The SC State Museum,The Gibbs Museum of Art, Clemson University, The SC State University, The College of Charleston, The City of Charleston ( White Point Gardens and The Gaillard Auditorium), Charleston County Public Library System, Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, Ashley Hall School, and the SC National Guard (bas-relief sculptures on Armory buildings statewide) to name a few. His papers are held at the College of Charleston.

good, 3 small marks to good hair, chip to wood back one corner