Bound Volume Number
1
Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2015
Capstone Advisor
Prof. Sascha Scott
Honors Reader
Prof. Romita Ray
Audio/Visual Component
no
Keywords
Sculptor, sculpture garden, animals in art
Capstone Prize Winner
yes
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Humanities
Subject Categories
American Material Culture | Art Practice | Fine Arts | Modern Art and Architecture | Sculpture | United States History
Abstract
Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973) was an American sculptor of animals who founded the nation’s first sculpture garden, Brookgreen Gardens, in 1932. Hyatt Huntington, whose personal papers are housed at Syracuse University, is an important yet understudied artist. Focusing on Hyatt Huntington’s sculptures in Brookgreen Gardens and on the gardens themselves, which also included a zoo, this paper will examine themes of labor in the artist’s oeuvre.
Hyatt Huntington placed an emphasis on hard work as she fought to distinguish herself as a sculptor in a male-dominated field. The products of her labor often venerate the work of animals, from bulls to horses to jaguars. Many of these sculptures are situated at Brookgreen Gardens. Founded at the dawn of the Great Depression, the gardens provide an opportunity to study her work in an era in which labor became a central theme for many artists, who, like Hyatt Huntington, saw hard work as a means to a better future. The multifaceted views of labor manifested in Hyatt Huntington’s work offer critical insights into her sculptures and American art at the time, as labor transforms her sculptures from realistic depictions of animals into beacons of toil, endeavor, and meaningful production.
Recommended Citation
Baerman, Brooke, "The Artist, the Workhorse: Labor in the Sculpture of Anna Hyatt Huntington" (2015). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 818.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/818
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Included in
American Material Culture Commons, Art Practice Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Sculpture Commons, United States History Commons
