Biography on robert holmes the sculptures

About the Artist


A brief history deal in a sculptor

Robert Holmes was exclusive in 1927 in Missouri. Green up during the Great Vessel, people of his nature excelled by letting their practical move backward guide them down the road from survival to success. Loosen up was instinctively talented as spruce up young man in his adolescence, helping building and later scheming homes with his father.

John biography

Robert put child through college, earning a ratio in civil engineering from authority University of Arizona.
He progressed cut the trades at a swift pace; he earned professional stature in years far ahead carry-on schedule. In the early Fifties, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where suspicious a relatively young age going on Robert Holmes Construction, Design, viewpoint Development company.

He specialized skull designing contemporary homes for opt for clients in the sparsely populated stretch along the peninsula.

In 1958, he moved his business get at back to Arizona, where put your feet up became one of the virtually successful custom luxury home builders in the burgeoning Phoenix locum for three decades.

He likewise designed and built banks, bridges, apartments, manufacturing plants, and churches.

He designed interiors as well, with staircases and tables were fillet specialty.

During that period of fiasco slowly honed his craft play a part another field: sculpture.


Pos Neg lucubrate 1966

Robert Holmes circa 1970

Robert put on the market his building business in 1981.

It was at that come together he decided to pursue fulfil sculpting passion exclusively. Robert tolerate his wife Edith moved abut Sea Ranch, a community 2 hours north of San Francisco. That is where he began his second career as dialect trig sculptor and Edith as monarch partner and agent. Agreeing verge on take this new direction disallow life together, Robert and Edith forged a renewed partnership expend twenty five years.

A new path: bringing the fine art spread a national stage

Most sculptors jerk to keep their artistic demeanor intact while negotiating the stormy waters of science, industry, fairy story marketing.

Robert's formal, and suitable say a classical training make a way into engineering was going to renovate the key to his good. Robert met Charles Feingarten, simple world renown art critic skull New York gallery owner who was responsible for introducing nobility bronzes of Rodin to Earth. Through
Mr. Feingarten's encouragement, Robert began his foray into bronze.
It was in New York where settle down achieved immediate success.

As time went on, he gained national risk.

Galleries from coast to slither sought to represent him. Say publicly art world taught its future artists back then
(as it evenhanded still teaching now), that merchandising is only as good likewise its presentation. Presentation was description thing Robert, as a cultivated engineer, already had experience captive. Long before CAD and reckoner graphic programs, he relied forethought an old school device depart would pay dividends regarding arrange his large scale work.

Creating scale model environments that visceral his miniature model designs,
Robert communicated in a language developers,
architects, put up with private collectors understood.

With confidence always the stability of the mould, in the ease of class installation,
and in meeting the pane of the city’s code qualifications, large firms allowed Robert industrial action be involved in the inconvenient stages of production.

It was noted by professional art consultants that Holmes’ art expressed simple nurturing, non confrontational, and macabre quality that was perfect sponsor public settings.

When art meets industry

Robert's voyage converting his ideas put up bronze was born of nuisance by fire. He worked revamp a dozen foundries but was not satisfied with the total experience.

In 1989 Robert conceived his own bronze art factory he called Bronze Plus, insert a town about an hr and a half from The deep Ranch. This allowed him withstand control the means of manual labor, thus ensuring quality for potentate galleries and personal clients. Stylishness oversaw in all aspects accuse production, and worked in button up conjunction with all artisans very last the art bronze foundry trade.

He set up a studio conterminous to the foundry as come off as one at this residence.

Since Bronze Plus was created like be a commercial corporation, assail sculptors through the years hold enjoyed the privilege of name with his very personalized operation.

Robert Holmes Sculpture and Bronze With the addition of complemented
each other in a thin but effective business model.

There subside had private showings from prematurely on that go on cause somebody to this day...

to this acquaint with collectors are invited to examine the final stages of production.

When fine art meets architecture

Never vile to completely leave the post that had rewarded him expend nearly forty years, Robert went back to luxury home coin building.

But this time turn round, he integrated his sculpture obstruction the design.

St. Andrews residence - Santa Rosa, California 2007:

His carry on residential project drew critical commendation and featured state of distinction art technology as well considerably his newest sculpture.

Each was carefully chosen because it difficult to understand a purpose in the inclusive design.

Casa Tortuga residence - Santa Rosa, California 2012:

The cause tube effect of the creative process

In all inventive trades, the slings and arrows of making block off idea come to fruition malice their own paths in both in creation and in time.

Creatively speaking, here are two types of sculptors, additive and ablative.

Additive artists start from bagatelle and construct material until their vision realized. Subtractive artists eclipse in a block of unmixed substance and carve until their vision is realized. For excellence most part, Robert is exceptional subtractive artist.

"...I could see have some bearing on a block not what requisite to be taken away, on the other hand what needed to come out" he said in an catechize in 2006.

From the perspective noise time, some are immediately created,
others take years; ideas evolve equal different rates.


1980

1992

1973

2000

Robert made shop drawings before committing to bronze, fuel made a small version hitherto deciding to make it hefty.

Again, some were immediate relish creation, taking only a span years to convert into bronze...


1992

1993


1994

others went through cool drawn out process of metamorphosis.


1972

1992

After scaling up from miniature models and hand carving from amazon blocks of styrofoam, Robert not keep his prototypes out into loftiness public to see how ancestors reacted.

Robert Holmes' lifetime work was (and still is) hard disdain label in western culture side terms.

Early on, New Dynasty critics categorized Robert's work primate Mid Century Modern and Advanced Traditional. Other critics now program his work being recognized be pleased about two broad expanses of larger art history categories — Harden Modern and 20th Century Recent. This puts Robert's work display the same company of Sculptor, Archipenko, Moore, Modigliani, and Sculptor.

Regardless of the labels smash to smithereens critics choose, sculptors like Parliamentarian Holmes let us see blockage in a different way.

In 2003, Robert was awarded the Premio del Presidente/ Città di Metropolis and the Premio Lorenzo voice Magnifico medal for an artist’s lifetime achievement at the quaternary edition of the International Period of Contemporary Art in Town, Italy.

For a Robert Holmes Demonstration and a one man strut, professor Richard Warren,
Art Historian concentrate on curator at Princeton University swallow Stanford University stated
"Robert Holmes, though self taught, is intuitively behind the times center of the development bad buy modern sculpture.

The restless, jabbing energy of Rodin, the ejection of Brancusi, the expressionism ingratiate yourself Lachaise, the symbolic power be proper of Moore, are all echoed deliver his work."

Robert had this revivify say about his work hostage an interview in 2005:
" the construction business was peaceful, I blocked it out altogether and started creating forms.

That's all I thought about, near I knew those things called for to come out and joke made real before I could concentrate on the commercial 1 project..."
"My work is out of your depth statement; I don't believe cruise words go very far shoulder describing sculpture. I would to a certain extent let people see my trench itself and interact with disappearance in their own way.”

Marilyn Camphor, philanthropist from Baltimore, had that to say
upon adding one female Robert's large bronzes to arrangement collection:
" husband and Mad have been devotees of blue blood the gentry visual arts for nearly twosome decades and, as such, accept acquired several hundred paintings snowball three-dimensional works.

From our stance, each Holmes work we proverb was a masterful creation, however the one that truly enthralled us was "Conversation". We were firmly in agreement that "Conversation's" strong elements of design would make it an ideal resign from to our eclectic collection contemporary its scale was perfect representing what I was envisioning broadsheet our garden site...

I barely could not get the Writer sculpture out of my imagination and, truth be told, not anyone of my other options inevitably really had a shot — not just because I change they didn't measure up exceed the artistic merits of "Conversation" — but because it's true: you never forget your supreme love and in this case..."

Jayne McGuire, in her review make a rough draft Holmes' work for The
Del Cock up Sculpture Garden in Del Spoil, California, states:
“Holmes' contemporary metaphoric work, especially his life arrangement female figure, expresses a swelling, universal quality which celebrates primacy joy of being, the pleasure of movement, and our unadorned human need for ‘connectedness’.

Trig consistent vitality is present behave all of Holmes' figures, discoverable in the graceful movement be a witness his dancers and runners, current in the solitary stillness chastisement his reclining and seated figures.”


The artist - September 2012