Let's Take A Trip

-- On behalf of our group, I just wanted to write and thank everyone at the foundry

for the amazing tour. The tour totally exceeded our expectations. Thank you (Jeffrey)

for giving us so much of your time that morning.

(Filming of a pour at MAF)

Airing on CBS Television, “Let’s Take A Trip” was described as an informational workshop for children. Host Sonny Fox, along with young Joan and Jimmy, would travel each week to places of interest and take a tour of the facilities. Their tour would be filmed, and on October 27, 1957 the location selected was Modern Art Foundry. The week before “Let’s Take A Trip” was at sculptor's Jacques Lipchitz studio and now they wanted to learn how his plaster sculpture was cast in bronze. This was the early days of black and white television and to the best of our knowledge the first, and for some time the only, start to finish filmed production of the process of lost wax casting at Modern Art Foundry. It is a gem to watch and a true document of history, featuring scenes with first and second-generation owners John and Bob Spring.

Forty one years later, The Augustus Saint-Gaudens Foundation filmed and produced “Wax Blood, Bronze Skin” in 1998. A detailed taping following the replication of the Admiral Farragut Monument for the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Trust in Cornish, New Hampshire.

In 2009, The Gaston Lachaise Foundation released "Flesh in Ecstasy".  Filmed and directed by George Stoney and David Bagnall, and narrated by Stanley Tucci, the film is a presentation of the many letters written by Gaston to Isabel Dutaud Nagle with Modern Art Foundry’s casting of the "Standing Woman" as part of the set. This cast of "Standing Woman" is now on loan and installed in the Jardin des Tuileries, Paris France. In addition, the film includes a detailed review of the lost wax casting process with a voice over explanation from Jeffrey Spring, current president of the foundry.

(MAF staff and invited guest view "Flesh in Ecstasy" at foundry, 2009)

The celebrated “Antique Roadshow” taped a brief review at Modern Art Foundry for their series “Antique Roadshow FYI”, launched in 2005, which supplemented the PBS appraisal show, explaining how items seen on their show were manufactured.

Through our Educational Services, tours of Modern Art Foundry continue for interested groups seeking information and education in the process of casting art. The dynamic, detailed, and dramatic steps of the lost wax casting process are often beyond what the visitor is expecting, and enlightening, in that it is almost always much more than anticipated.

It’s a foundry tradition.

Learn more at: www.modernartfoundry.com

-- What an amazing experience we had two weeks ago!

Everyone is still talking about being on our most enriching tour at the foundry.

It was something that we will never forget.


Modern Art Foundry
18-70 41st Street
Astoria, NY
718-728-2030

- Photo credits on file.

MAF Designs 

Exhibits

Civil War Soldiers and Abraham Lincoln Portraits

at Belgrade Maine Public Library Event

 Lincoln, bronze, 7 x 4 x 3 in., Modern Art Foundry

On August 7, 2013, Lincoln Prize winner Dr. Elizabeth Leonard, head of the history department at Colby College, presented and took questions in response to all five of her Civil War histories at the Belgrade Public Library. These works are:

-Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky, 2011

-Men of Color to Arms!: Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality, 2010

-Lincoln’s Avengers: Justice, Revenge, And Reunion After The Civil War, 2004

-All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies, 1999

-Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War, 1994

  

Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky won Dr. Leonard the prestigious 2012 Lincoln Prize awarded annually since 1991 by the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College for the best non-fiction historical work of the year on the American Civil War. The award includes a bronze bust of the Lincoln statue created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Featured on display was MAF Designs coffee-table size portraits of Abraham Lincoln and four Civil War Soldiers. The soldier's, two of each alike, were created to represent all serving in the Civil War, and were on display in stylized patinas of blue and gray. The Lincoln portrait, shown in bonded bronze, as the bronze edition has sold out, was purchased and given as a gift from an anonymous benefactor.

It was noted that in attendance was Jay Hoar, retired professor from University of Maine, author, and Civil War researcher, who has been a presenter at prior Belgrade Civil War events.

Educational Civil War events have become a summer tradition in Belgrade, Maine and MAF Designs hopes to be asked to participate next year too.

Modern Art Foundry

Serving Artists and Communities Since 1932

www.modernartfoundry.com

-Photo credits on file

It's Summer.....

As winter finally fades and warmer weather arrives,

Modern Art Foundry's Conservation and Maintenance Team
hits the road to provide cleaning and protective waxing services on site. 

                                                                           Iwo Jima Memorial, Fall River, MA (maintenance)

Formally incorporated as one of our services about fifteen years ago, our Conservation and Maintenance Department has been working to provide initial and on going treatment plans to private and public collections, allowing for protection and preservation. First time treatments often focus on restoring a sculpture back to a best-desired state. Annual treatments allow for the continuous care and graceful aging. In some cases, our assessment of a sculpture that has not been treated for sometime requires additional services, such as on site patina restoration, which may be necessary to bring the work back to a unified, healthy condition. While funding is often an issue in on going care, we find owners very receptive to keeping their sculpture looking good. Cleaning, patina balance, and protective waxing are the basic services. We also care for a few bronze fountains. This involves a start up service to get the water pump working in spring, and providing a shut down service to protect the plumbing in winter. Sculpture that has not been treated for many, many years or vandalized may not be repairable in the field and we will recommend the piece be delivered to the foundry for more extensive services. Our overall goal is to achieve protective care while following the least invasive treatments, and cautiously proceeding should action that is more aggressive be needed.

 

As you can see from the images, we work on small and large works. With summer on its way,

our Sculpture Care Specialists are ready to provide protection to sculptures in parks,

schools, private residences, and more.

                                    Samantha Smith statue, Augusta, ME (maintenance)

                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                  (All photo credits on file)

If you see us, please say hello. 

If you have sculpture that needs some care, give us a call or email at
718.728.2030 / info@modernartfoundry.com.