GWEN LUX

"HILDEGARDE"

TERRACOTTA, SIGNED

AMERICAN, DATED 1947

25 INCHES

THIS IS A PORTRAIT OF AMERICAN SINGER HILDEGARDE LORETTA SELL

A FAMOUS VAUDEVILLE PREFORMER KNOWN FOR HER SONG

"DARLING, JE VOUS AIME BEAUCOUP"

Gwen Lux

1908-2001

Born in 1908 in Chicago and deceased in 2001 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Gwen Lux was a sculptor, lecturer, teacher and industrial designer who lived in Detroit, Michigan in the early part of her career and then moved to Honolulu in 1973.  She was also very active in New York City.  Her sculptures combine abstraction and realism, and are usually constructed from polyester resin concrete and metals. 

She studied at the Maryland Institute of Art and the Boston Museum School of the Fine Arts.  She also studied in Paris, France, and with Ivan Mestrovic in Yugoslavia.

Lux was a member of the American Art Congress, Associated American Artists for whom she designed Stonelain Pottery, and the Hawaii Artists & Sculptors League.  She exhibited widely including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania Academy, Detroit Museum, and in galleries and museums in Honolulu.

Among her awards are a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1933; Detroit Institute Award, 1944 and 1945; and National Industrial Arts Council Award in 1965.

Her sculptures are in the collections of the Detroit Institute of the Arts; McGraw Hill Building in Chicago; Music Hall of Radio City; Aviation Trade School and New York Department of Education in New York City; General Motors Technical Center in Detroit; and State Office Building in Kauai, Hawaii.  For the Northwood Shopping Center in Detroit, she completed a bird totem pole of metal and wood, and for Fifth Avenue facades at Rockefeller Center, she did carvings:  Four Periods in Italian History and Four Continents.  Intended for Radio City Music Hall was her nude figural work, Eve.  The nude, primordial looking figure stirred much controversy. "The theatre owner went into shock when he saw the nudity and modernity of her sculpture and others by William Zorach and Robert Laurent.  Critics and artists rallied to their defense, however, and they were installed." (Rubinstein 359)

Gwen Lux is considered an industrial artist because of her commissions for industries including General Motors, and her use of modern materials such as chrome, stainless steel, polyester resin and concrete.  From 1945 to 1948, she was an instructor of sculpture for the Arts and Crafts Society of Detroit.