Albin Polasek
Albin Polasek (February 14, 1879 - May 19, 1965) was a Czech-American sculptor and educator. He created more than four hundred works during his prolific career, two hundred of which are now displayed in the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, Florida.
Polasek apprenticed as a woodcarver in Vienna before immigrating to the United States in 1901 at the age of 22. After four years working as a woodcarver in the American Midwest, Polasek began his formal art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Under the guidance of sculptor Charles Grafly, Polasek learned the traditional classical techniques of sculpting, while refining his own distinct style. As a student he first created “Man Carving His Own Destiny” (1907) and “Eternal Moment” (1909), two of his earliest well-known sculptures.
In 1910, Polasek won the Prix de Rome competition, which granted him a three-year fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. While studying in Rome, his “Sower” was awarded an Honorable Mention at the spring 1913 Paris Salon. After completing his studies in Italy, Polasek set up a studio in New York City. In 1916, at the age of 37, he was invited to head the Sculpture Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he remained for nearly thirty years.
In early 1927, Albin Polasek was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design. This professional membership is a high honor reserved for America’s top painters, sculptors, printmakers and architects. Both grades of membership, Associate and Academician, are conferred only after nomination by an Academician and subsequent election by the members of the Academy. Polasek received full Academician status in 1933, allowing him to place the coveted N.A. after his signature.
In the year 2000, Polasek was named a “Great Floridian” by the state of Florida, a distinction recognizing those who have made significant contributions to the history and culture of the state. In 2004, Albin Polasek was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, recognition of artists who have made significant contributions to the arts in Florida in individual disciplines.
“Man Carving His Own Destiny,” first conceived and executed when Polasek was still a student, became his best-known work. The motif sparks the imagination: Man, hewing his way out of darkness, struggling to carve his own destiny. This idea came to represent to Polasek his own struggle to become a sculptor, at the same time expressing his gratitude to America for the opportunities this country opened to him..
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