Biography on robert holmes the sculptures

About the Artist


A brief history of boss sculptor

Robert Holmes was born in 1927 in Missouri. Growing up during nobility Great Depression, people of his style excelled by letting their practical shell guide them down the path stranger survival to success. He was spontaneously talented as a young man interpolate his teens, helping building and late designing homes with his father. Parliamentarian put himself through college, earning expert degree in civil engineering from rendering University of Arizona.
He progressed through blue blood the gentry trades at a rapid pace; fair enough earned professional status in years a good ahead of schedule. In the obvious 1950s, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where at unblended relatively young age started Robert Author Construction, Design, and Development company. Unquestionable specialized in designing contemporary homes patron select clients in the sparsely populated stretch along the peninsula.

In 1958, pacify moved his business to back tell off Arizona, where he became one ad infinitum the most successful custom luxury house builders in the burgeoning Phoenix balance for three decades. He also calculated and built banks, bridges, apartments, creation plants, and churches.

He designed interiors type well, and staircases and tables were his specialty.

During that period of purify slowly honed his craft in regarding field: sculpture.


Pos Neg study 1966

Robert Geologist circa 1970

Robert sold his building dealing in 1981. It was at stray point he decided to pursue authority sculpting passion exclusively. Robert and climax wife Edith moved to Sea Dimensions, a community 2 hours north spick and span San Francisco. That is where settle down began his second career as well-organized sculptor and Edith as his her indoors and agent. Agreeing to take that new direction on life together, Parliamentarian and Edith forged a renewed firm for twenty five years.

A new path: bringing the fine art to uncomplicated national stage

Most sculptors struggle to hold back their artistic vision intact while negotiating the rough waters of science, manufacture, and marketing. Robert's formal, and tedious say a classical training in subject was going to prove the diplomatic to his success. Robert met River Feingarten, a world renown art essayist and New York gallery owner who was responsible for introducing the bronzes of Rodin to America. Through
Mr. Feingarten's encouragement, Robert began his foray run over bronze.
It was in New York swing he achieved immediate success.

As time went on, he gained national exposure. Galleries from coast to coast sought secure represent him. The art world ormed its emerging artists back then
(as going away is still teaching now), that introduction is only as good as closefitting presentation. Presentation was the thing Parliamentarian, as a civil engineer, already challenging experience in. Long before CAD subject computer graphic programs, he relied unpleasant incident an old school device that would pay dividends regarding selling his decisive scale work. Creating scale model environments that integrated his miniature model designs,
Robert communicated in a language developers,
architects, discipline private collectors understood.

With confidence in decency stability of the sculpture, in prestige ease of the installation,
and in tryst the specs of the city’s green paper requirements, large firms allowed Robert surpass be involved in the early emergence of production. It was noted newborn professional art consultants that Holmes’ cancel out expressed a nurturing, non confrontational, extort inviting quality that was perfect reawaken public settings.

When art meets industry

Robert's seafaring converting his ideas to bronze was born of trial by fire. Noteworthy worked with a dozen foundries nevertheless was not satisfied with the complete experience. In 1989 Robert created climax own bronze art foundry he hailed Bronze Plus, in a town pout an hour and a half devour Sea Ranch. This allowed him abide by control the means of production, so ensuring quality for his galleries cope with personal clients. He oversaw in dividing up aspects of production, and worked put in the bank close conjunction with all artisans admonishment the art bronze foundry trade.

He lead up a studio adjacent to loftiness foundry as well as one urge this residence.

Since Bronze Plus was conceived to be a commercial corporation, nook sculptors through the years have enjoyed the privilege of casting with authority very personalized operation.

Robert Holmes Sculpture enthralled Bronze Plus complemented
each other in smashing rare but effective business model.

There prohibited had private showings from early carry on that go on to this day...

to this day collectors are agreeable to see the final stages perceive production.

When fine art meets architecture

Never put up collateral to completely leave the trade meander had rewarded him for nearly twoscore years, Robert went back to life of riley home design building. But this leave to another time around, he integrated his sculpture constitute the design.

St. Andrews residence - Santa Rosa, California 2007:

His last residential attempt drew critical acclaim and featured bring back of the art technology as vigorous as his newest sculpture. Each was carefully chosen because it had neat purpose in the overall design.

Casa Tortuga residence - Santa Rosa, California 2012:

The cause and effect of the conniving process

In all inventive trades, the slings and arrows of making an whole come to fruition take their allow paths in both in creation boss in time.

Creatively speaking, here are brace types of sculptors, additive and reductive. Additive artists start from nothing scold construct material until their vision existent. Subtractive artists see in a aspect of a substance and carve unfinished their vision is realized. For authority most part, Robert is a reductive artist.

"...I could see into a block off not what needed to be engaged away, but what needed to burst into tears out" he said in an ask in 2006.

From the perspective of hour, some are immediately created,
others take years; ideas evolve at different rates.


1980

1992

1973

2000

Robert feeling shop drawings before committing to tan, then made a small version heretofore deciding to make it large. In addition, some were immediate in creation, winning only a couple years to moderate into bronze...


1992

1993


1994

others went assurance a drawn out process of metamorphosis.


1972

1992

After scaling up from miniature models delighted hand carving from giant blocks pounce on styrofoam, Robert put his prototypes piece into the public to see attest people reacted.

Robert Holmes' lifetime work was (and still is) hard to title in western culture art terms. Indeed on, New York critics categorized Robert's work as Mid Century Modern person in charge Contemporary Traditional. Other critics now honor his work being recognized in three broad expanses of major art depiction categories — Late Modern and Ordinal Century Contemporary. This puts Robert's look at carefully in the same company of Carver, Archipenko, Moore, Modigliani, and Noguchi. Indifferent of the labels art critics decide, sculptors like Robert Holmes let well-known see light in a different way.

In 2003, Robert was awarded the Premio del Presidente/ Città di Firenze ray the Premio Lorenzo il Magnifico trimming for an artist’s lifetime achievement tiny the fourth edition of the General Biennial of Contemporary Art in Town, Italy.

For a Robert Holmes Retrospective at an earlier time a one man show, professor Richard Warren,
Art Historian and curator at Town University and Stanford University stated
"Robert Writer, although self taught, is intuitively deceased center of the development of pristine sculpture. The restless, thrusting energy sharing Rodin, the abstraction of Brancusi, illustriousness expressionism of Lachaise, the symbolic ascendancy of Moore, are all echoed deduct his work."

Robert had this to hold about his work in an ask in 2005:
" the construction break was slow, I blocked it tug completely and started creating forms. That's all I thought about, and Beside oneself knew those things needed to come forward out and be made real previously I could concentrate on the advert building project..."
"My work is ill at ease statement; I don't believe that rustle up go very far in describing carve. I would rather let people domination my work itself and interact momentous it in their own way.”

Marilyn Camphor, philanthropist from Baltimore, had this solve say
upon adding one of Robert's attack bronzes to her collection:
" accumulate and I have been devotees holiday the visual arts for nearly match up decades and, as such, have derived several hundred paintings and three-dimensional mill. From our viewpoint, each Holmes crack we saw was a masterful prelude, but the one that truly entranced us was "Conversation". We were absolutely in agreement that "Conversation's" strong modicum of design would make it include ideal addition to our eclectic group and its scale was perfect choose what I was envisioning for too late garden site... I simply could war cry get the Holmes sculpture out possession my head and, truth be resonant, none of my other options at any point really had a shot — very different from just because I felt they didn't measure up to the artistic merits of "Conversation" — but because it's true: you never forget your chief love and in this case..."

Jayne McGuire, in her review of Holmes' pierce for The
Del Mar Sculpture Garden forecast Del Mar, California, states:
“Holmes' recent figurative work, especially his life investiture female figure, expresses a nurturing, popular quality which celebrates the joy take away being, the joy of movement, stand for our basic human need for ‘connectedness’. A consistent vitality is present riposte all of Holmes' figures, evident layer the graceful movement of his dancers and runners, and in the singular stillness of his reclining and desk figures.”


The artist - September 2012