Marshall M. Fredericks:
Selected Works from the Collection

June 1, 2006 to January 19, 2007

Marshall M. Fredericks: Selected Works from the Collection features a selection of molds, models, and relief artwork from the collection that explains and educates the viewer about the process of making relief casts in metal. The exhibition showcases Fredericks' medallions, portrait plaques, narrative and historical reliefs. The objects not only include the finished plaster models but the working models, with oil-based clay still intact, graphite guide drawings, and the actual molds used to create the plaster models.

Fredericks cast most of his works using the sand casting method. With this method, a working model is made with clay and motif objects, a mold is taken from this working model, and a plaster positive (model) is made from the mold. The metal is cast from a sand mold made directly from the plaster model. An adjacent gallery, "The Sculptor's Studio," features an installation of over 350 actual objects and artifacts from Fredericks' studio.

After Fredericks' death in 1998, the Museum received most of the contents of his studios including tools, equipment, drawings, and sculptures. The Museum houses a unique collection of more than 1,500 works spanning the career of Marshall M. Fredericks (1908-1998), a Detroit-based sculptor. He worked continuously through his life on numerous commissions for fountains, memorials, free-standing sculptures, reliefs, and portraits in bronze and other materials. He is known in America and abroad for his monumental figurative sculpture, inspiring public memorials, exuberant fountains, insightful portraits, and whimsical sculptures of animals.

Some of his best known works include Christ on the Cross, Indian River, Michigan; The Fountain of Eternal Life: Peace Arising from the Flames of War, Cleveland, Ohio; The Expanding Universe Fountain, United States Department of State Building, Washington, D.C.; Freedom of the Human Spirit, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, New York City; Leaping Gazelle for Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain, Belle Isle, Detroit; and The Spirit of Detroit, Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, Detroit.

The exhibition will be on display at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University from June 1 until September 16, 2006. Summer hours (Memorial to Labor Day) are Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m.; Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. (after Labor Day). For more information, please call 989-964-7125 or visit the website at www.marshallfredericks.org.