Baboon, Male [Plaster]
Dublin Core
Title
Baboon, Male [Plaster]
Subject
Animal sculpture--20th century
Description
Male Baboon, 1939
Plaster original
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall M. Fredericks
1991.057
This is the full-scale model of one figure for Fredericks' Baboon Fountain for the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows Park, New York. The five baboons and baby baboon were created for the Glass Industries Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair. His knees are separated widening his stance and increasing his stability. His teeth are bared suggesting aggression and his brow line is more pronounced. Fredericks has imparted him with a personality. Including the pedestals, the five baboon figures stood to a height of fourteen feet. They were cast in concrete with the intent of being carved in stone at a later date. However, World War II intervened and they were subsequently destroyed.
Small-scale sketch models for the other figures of the fountain are located in a display case at the east end of the Main Exhibit Gallery.
Plaster original
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall M. Fredericks
1991.057
This is the full-scale model of one figure for Fredericks' Baboon Fountain for the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows Park, New York. The five baboons and baby baboon were created for the Glass Industries Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair. His knees are separated widening his stance and increasing his stability. His teeth are bared suggesting aggression and his brow line is more pronounced. Fredericks has imparted him with a personality. Including the pedestals, the five baboon figures stood to a height of fourteen feet. They were cast in concrete with the intent of being carved in stone at a later date. However, World War II intervened and they were subsequently destroyed.
Small-scale sketch models for the other figures of the fountain are located in a display case at the east end of the Main Exhibit Gallery.
Creator
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998
Date
1939
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
74" x 22.75" x 23"
Materials
Plaster full-scale
Catalog Number
1991.057
Object Location
Main Exhibit Gallery
Provenance
03/22/1989 gifted to MFSM
Notes
Male Baboon made of plaster. Legs are apart with one hand rested on each knee. He has visible fangs.
From Jennifer Lentz (Collection Documentation Intern 1991-1992)
Memo dated July 26, 1991:
"RE: Two large Baboon plasters:
Fredericks indicated today that the two large plaster baboons in the gallery were made in the 1930's. He explained the discrepancy between the treatment of the tail in our plasters and the tails in the finished concrete casts installed at the New York World's Fair in 1939 by pointing out that he made new plaster models for the concrete casts after he had made the two plaster models in the gallery because it was practical to cast the concrete statues with the tail wrapped around the baboons rather than extending down the vertical planes of the pedestal. He recalled that the rectilinear portions of the concrete pedestal had been cast separately from the baboons themselves.
At a different time Molly indicated that she had worked on construction of the tall pedestals (with integral tails) in 1985 - 86 when Fredericks was preparing the models for casting the two baboons for the Arbury's (now in MFSG Garden) and the same two baboons for his garden.
I am not certain that this is the final word on the history of the large plaster baboons. I would like to hear Fredericks substantiate this story independently at some future time."
July 30, 1991
TO: file
FROM: Jennifer Lentz, Intern
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Gallery
RE: Male and Female Baboons
On July 26, 1991 Molly told me that the Arbury's bronze Baboons that are currently on loan to the gallery were cast in 1986.
MF, Sculptor copy:
The New York World's Fair Fountain
Asked to do a fountain for the Glass Industries Building at the New York World's Fair of 1939, Fredericks returned to the universal appeal of animals for his subject, but he gave the fountain an ingenious reversal of the common pattern of high centerpiece and water playing to the outward rim. He designed a ring of monumental baboon figures, in cast stone, fourteen feet high with their pedestals, with a baby baboon sitting in the middle of an eight-foot glass basin, into which the jets of water play from the outer circumference. This fountain no longer exists; during the war, when the site was acquired for the war effort by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was stolen and is thought to have been dumped into the East River.
Molly Barth copy:
The two baboons which flank the column in the reception area are [what?] from the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. Originally, these were cast in concrete. One is a male and one is a female. On the right is the male fiercely showing his teeth. On the left is the more dainty, ladylike, female baboon. (In the display case are the small maquettes of the baboons.) The full-size baboons were 16 feet tall, and they were cast in stone, not carved. They were going to be carved in a more permanent material, but World War II broke out. They dismantled the Fair and stored the concrete Baboons. To this day, no one knows what happened to the baboons. These two plaster [what?] are the only two Fredericks has left. These are the models for the bronze casts that are at the entrance to the building.
From Jennifer Lentz (Collection Documentation Intern 1991-1992)
Memo dated July 26, 1991:
"RE: Two large Baboon plasters:
Fredericks indicated today that the two large plaster baboons in the gallery were made in the 1930's. He explained the discrepancy between the treatment of the tail in our plasters and the tails in the finished concrete casts installed at the New York World's Fair in 1939 by pointing out that he made new plaster models for the concrete casts after he had made the two plaster models in the gallery because it was practical to cast the concrete statues with the tail wrapped around the baboons rather than extending down the vertical planes of the pedestal. He recalled that the rectilinear portions of the concrete pedestal had been cast separately from the baboons themselves.
At a different time Molly indicated that she had worked on construction of the tall pedestals (with integral tails) in 1985 - 86 when Fredericks was preparing the models for casting the two baboons for the Arbury's (now in MFSG Garden) and the same two baboons for his garden.
I am not certain that this is the final word on the history of the large plaster baboons. I would like to hear Fredericks substantiate this story independently at some future time."
July 30, 1991
TO: file
FROM: Jennifer Lentz, Intern
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Gallery
RE: Male and Female Baboons
On July 26, 1991 Molly told me that the Arbury's bronze Baboons that are currently on loan to the gallery were cast in 1986.
MF, Sculptor copy:
The New York World's Fair Fountain
Asked to do a fountain for the Glass Industries Building at the New York World's Fair of 1939, Fredericks returned to the universal appeal of animals for his subject, but he gave the fountain an ingenious reversal of the common pattern of high centerpiece and water playing to the outward rim. He designed a ring of monumental baboon figures, in cast stone, fourteen feet high with their pedestals, with a baby baboon sitting in the middle of an eight-foot glass basin, into which the jets of water play from the outer circumference. This fountain no longer exists; during the war, when the site was acquired for the war effort by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was stolen and is thought to have been dumped into the East River.
Molly Barth copy:
The two baboons which flank the column in the reception area are [what?] from the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. Originally, these were cast in concrete. One is a male and one is a female. On the right is the male fiercely showing his teeth. On the left is the more dainty, ladylike, female baboon. (In the display case are the small maquettes of the baboons.) The full-size baboons were 16 feet tall, and they were cast in stone, not carved. They were going to be carved in a more permanent material, but World War II broke out. They dismantled the Fair and stored the concrete Baboons. To this day, no one knows what happened to the baboons. These two plaster [what?] are the only two Fredericks has left. These are the models for the bronze casts that are at the entrance to the building.
Files
Citation
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998, “Baboon, Male [Plaster],” Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, accessed December 23, 2024, https://omeka.svsu.edu/items/show/5106.