Biography

EvAngelos Frudakis Awarded National Sculpture Society’s Medal of Honor New York, NY – National Sculpture Society’s highest award, The Medal of Honor, will go to EvAngelos Frudakis, FNSS.

As a teenager, Frudakis attended night classes at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, where he studied with Paul Manship. Through Manship’s encouragement, Frudakis soon enrolled at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, where he found the formal instruction and support, he needed to develop his talent. Acclaim from the Academy soon followed; PAFA’s Cresson and Scheidt Scholarship awards, which enabled him to travel in Europe, are just two of the many awards he received.

Outside the Academy, other organizations took note of Frudakis’ work. In 1949, he won the Louis Comfort Tiffany Scholarship, followed by two of the American Academy in Rome’s Prix de Rome fellowships. Upon his return from his travels, Frudakis taught at the Nation- al Academy of Design (NA) and PAFA, before founding the Frudakis Academy of Fine Arts in 1976, which he ran through 1990. Frudakis con- tinued to help ensure a strong presence of figu- rative sculpture in the United States by teach- ing workshops and sharing his expertise with today’s emerging and established sculptors.

EAEYOEPIA Frudakis The Signer, inspired by George Greek Bas-Relief Liberty Commemorative Bas-Relief Series
Clymer, a signer of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, stands in Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia. The sculpture also honors Frudakis’ ties to PAFA, as Clymer was elected first president of the Academy. Another notable commission is The Minute Man, versions of which grace the National Guard Building in Washington, D.C. and the National Guard Readiness.

The Signer
Center in Arlington, VA. Other public monuments include the Welcome Fountain, Philadelphia, PA; Naiad Fountain, Philadelphia, PA; Icarus and Daedalus, Little Rock, Arkansas; John F. Kennedy memorial monument, Atlantic City, NJ; Reaching, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.

Frudakis served on the Board of National Sculpture Society and received the Herbert Adams Memorial Award in 1976. He exhibited numerous times with NSS and with National Academy, winning NSS’ Gold Medal in 1972 and the NA’s Gold Medal in 1984.

The Medal of Honor is the Society’s highest award, presented as the occasion arises for notable achieve- ment in and for encouragement to American Sculpture. The award, first given in 1929, consists of a certificate and a medal. Previous recipients include Archer M. Huntington (1929), Marcel Jovine (1996), Stanley Ble- ifeld (2009) and Bruno Lucchesi (2010). National Sculpture Society will present Frudakis with the award at the annual Honors and Awards Dinner, May 19th. The dinner is part of NSS’ Sculpture Celebration Week- end in Loveland, CO.

Reaching
National Sculpture Society – 75 Varick St, Fl 11, New York, NY 10013 – 212-764-5645 – www.nationalsculpture.org