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.