American Eagle, Victory Eagle [Bronze]
Dublin Core
Title
American Eagle, Victory Eagle [Bronze]
Subject
Animal sculpture--20th century
Description
Victory Eagle (American Eagle), 1972
Bronze, cast 1988
Gift of Frank N. and Lucille Anderson
1991.036
Cast in 1972, The American Eagle, also known as the Victory Eagle, is installed on the Federal Reserve Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is stylized in a very geometric and angular way. This is especially evident when compared to the quarter-scale bronze sculpture of the American Eagle known as the Ann Arbor War Memorial Eagle located behind the male and female Baboons in the Main Gallery.
Though both eagles are in abstracted, the Victory Eagle appears to be landing on the surface of the pedestal. Moreover, it is situated above the eye-level of the viewer and looks down with glaring eyes. Its upraised wings, sharp beak, and talons add to its fierceness. The Ann Arbor War Memorial Eagle sits in a threatening, guarding posture.
Bronze, cast 1988
Gift of Frank N. and Lucille Anderson
1991.036
Cast in 1972, The American Eagle, also known as the Victory Eagle, is installed on the Federal Reserve Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is stylized in a very geometric and angular way. This is especially evident when compared to the quarter-scale bronze sculpture of the American Eagle known as the Ann Arbor War Memorial Eagle located behind the male and female Baboons in the Main Gallery.
Though both eagles are in abstracted, the Victory Eagle appears to be landing on the surface of the pedestal. Moreover, it is situated above the eye-level of the viewer and looks down with glaring eyes. Its upraised wings, sharp beak, and talons add to its fierceness. The Ann Arbor War Memorial Eagle sits in a threatening, guarding posture.
Creator
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998
Date
1972
Rights
Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Relation
Type
Sculpture
Coverage
University Center (Mich.)
Sculpture Item Type Metadata
Physical Dimensions
66" x 30" x 30"
Materials
Bronze
Catalog Number
1991.036
Object Location
Main Exhibit Gallery
Provenance
11/13/1998 gifted to MFSM
Notes
MF, Sculptor copy:
The War Memorial in the United States
The war memorial as an expression of proud and tragic memories came into prominence as a theme of sculpture after the Civil War. Often that tragedy was represented in terms of the individual soldier-the bronze infantryman quietly standing guard-an image which spoke so eloquently to our country that it was repeated in a thousand towns and villages. In more heroic form, the Civil War was commemorated by a general on horseback, as if at the head of his volunteer soldiers. In the vast wars of our century the individual was submerged and generals no longer rode at the head of their troops. Memories of those who served were commemorated impersonally by a flame, a sports stadium, a civic auditorium. Fredericks planned one such dramatic, impersonal commemoration of Bataan, but it was never executed.
When asked to do a war memorial for the University of Michigan in 1950, he turned again to the symbolic eagle, which he had used in the Veterans Memorial Building in Detroit. The American Eagle in Ann Arbor is a fierce, combative image of courage and strength. A heroic bronze, poised on its pedestal, it shows how far he had come in expressive power from the simple grace of his early fountain figures. The observer who walks around this bronze sees a continuously changing, merging series of views, the work maintaining its vigor and meaning throughout. This is not a one- or four-sided composition but a kinetic, continuously unfolding design.
Molly Barth copy:
Here is a bronze. This is The American Eagle made for inside the Federal Reserve Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a beautiful eagle, which is very geometric and angular as though it's just landed on this perch.
The War Memorial in the United States
The war memorial as an expression of proud and tragic memories came into prominence as a theme of sculpture after the Civil War. Often that tragedy was represented in terms of the individual soldier-the bronze infantryman quietly standing guard-an image which spoke so eloquently to our country that it was repeated in a thousand towns and villages. In more heroic form, the Civil War was commemorated by a general on horseback, as if at the head of his volunteer soldiers. In the vast wars of our century the individual was submerged and generals no longer rode at the head of their troops. Memories of those who served were commemorated impersonally by a flame, a sports stadium, a civic auditorium. Fredericks planned one such dramatic, impersonal commemoration of Bataan, but it was never executed.
When asked to do a war memorial for the University of Michigan in 1950, he turned again to the symbolic eagle, which he had used in the Veterans Memorial Building in Detroit. The American Eagle in Ann Arbor is a fierce, combative image of courage and strength. A heroic bronze, poised on its pedestal, it shows how far he had come in expressive power from the simple grace of his early fountain figures. The observer who walks around this bronze sees a continuously changing, merging series of views, the work maintaining its vigor and meaning throughout. This is not a one- or four-sided composition but a kinetic, continuously unfolding design.
Molly Barth copy:
Here is a bronze. This is The American Eagle made for inside the Federal Reserve Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a beautiful eagle, which is very geometric and angular as though it's just landed on this perch.
Files
Citation
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998, “American Eagle, Victory Eagle [Bronze],” Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, accessed May 6, 2024, https://omeka.svsu.edu/items/show/5085.