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DeWitt - Big Sky Journal - Summer 2003.pdf
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Biography
Floyd Tennison DeWitt was born in 1934. While growing up in Eastern Montana, he exhibited a strong interest in art and life in general. He acquired a special feeling for three dimensional form, which he would later cultivate and develop into his life's work.
Early on, DeWitt began working with horses and considered himself a kind of "Cowboy Artist", who focused primarily on Western Art. That was until he joined the US Army.
After being drafted into the Army, he was stationed in Germany and became exposed to the wider world of art and thinking. During this time in the service, DeWitt served in the unusual capacity of sculptor, and completed a life size battalion monument for the Army.
Returning to Montana in 1956, he began to understand that his future lay in the world of art. He moved to Minnesota, where he attended the Minneapolis School of Fine Art and Design. While there, DeWitt began to seriously study sculpture and discovered, in his own words, "Life and sculpture offered not only infinite possibilities, but limitations as well, and these limitations could be a strength rather than a weakness."
With a more developed awareness of the arts, and an increasingly refined sense of taste, DeWitt returned to Europe in 1960, where he attended the National Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, Holland on a full tuition scholarship. Throughout his six years of study at the Academy, he participated in many exhibitions and worked hard at perfecting the artist's craft. During this time, he became aware that sculpture itself is a language, a language he describes as "the silent language of form".
Upon his departure from the academy, DeWitt smoothly made the transition from student to sculptor. During the twenty five years that he resided in Europe, he worked on many commissions, both small and large. His work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe, and can be seen in many public collections, buildings and parks.
DeWitt returned to the United States in 1984. In 1991, the Holter Museum of Fine Art in Helena, Montana featured DeWitt in the largest one-man exhibition ever held in the state. This one man exhibition, entitled "The Silent Voice of Form" presented over 150 different works by DeWitt, predominantly sculpture. Following the Holter show, DeWitt participated in various group shows and received numerous awards. In 1995 he received the Gold Medal Cash Award at the National Sculpture Society in New York City, the Silver Medal in 1996, and the Bronze Medal in the year 2000.
It is evident today that DeWitt's fascination for three dimensional form and sculpture representing animals and the human figure, in particular, continue to play an important role in his work. He takes a very hands-on approach to the craft and continuously strives for improvements throughout the entire process involved in the casting and the production of bronze sculptures. He constantly fine tunes and perfects his pieces. As a result, Floyd DeWitt's work has a unique appeal which combines years of training and employs a variety of artistic expressions that emphasize the distinctive nature of our Western civilization while using a medium that can stand the test of time.
In the eyes of his peers and among a significant group of collectors found across the globe, Floyd Tennison DeWitt is considered a true American treasure.
Mr. DeWitt has built a distinguished body of work spanning more than five decades. The first half of his career flourished in the Netherlands following extensive training at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and then at the venerable Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.
During his tenure abroad, critic and art historian Arie Teeuwisse proclaimed, "One of the most important contributions to equine sculpture in the Netherlands came from American artist Floyd DeWitt, the cowboy among the Dutch artists."
Returning to his native Montana in 1984, Floyd has continued his output of award winning work. Being recognized with such prizes as the Gold and Silver medals of the National Sculpture Society in New York and another Silver medal from the National Academy of Western Art in Oklahoma City. Such peer honors have been garnered while having been represented by major galleries across the U.S.
Although Mr. DeWitt has shown and continues to show in Montana, there has never been a comprehensive retrospective of this renowned artist's work.
Noted Dutch art critic and author of numerous publications of the Fine Arts, Architecture, and Philosophy, Dr, Hans Redeker writes: "Within a great tradition (of sculpture) DeWitt stands out as an innovator in that he endows all his works, including his portraits, with an inner significance that transcends by far the individuality of the subject. Floyd DeWitt is among the most inspired, the most authentic and the most singular of the artists I have met during my career as an art critic. Singular, but without the slightest trace of trendiness or fashionable modernism, he is unshakably himself. He is one who has liberated himself from the compulsive commercialism that contaminates so much of contemporary art today. The art of Floyd DeWitt invariably employs only the purest means of sculptural expression."
--This biography contributed to by Todd Wilkinson and Floyd DeWitt
Floyd Tennison DeWitt was born in 1934. While growing up in Eastern Montana, he exhibited a strong interest in art and life in general. He acquired a special feeling for three dimensional form, which he would later cultivate and develop into his life's work.
Early on, DeWitt began working with horses and considered himself a kind of "Cowboy Artist", who focused primarily on Western Art. That was until he joined the US Army.
After being drafted into the Army, he was stationed in Germany and became exposed to the wider world of art and thinking. During this time in the service, DeWitt served in the unusual capacity of sculptor, and completed a life size battalion monument for the Army.
Returning to Montana in 1956, he began to understand that his future lay in the world of art. He moved to Minnesota, where he attended the Minneapolis School of Fine Art and Design. While there, DeWitt began to seriously study sculpture and discovered, in his own words, "Life and sculpture offered not only infinite possibilities, but limitations as well, and these limitations could be a strength rather than a weakness."
With a more developed awareness of the arts, and an increasingly refined sense of taste, DeWitt returned to Europe in 1960, where he attended the National Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, Holland on a full tuition scholarship. Throughout his six years of study at the Academy, he participated in many exhibitions and worked hard at perfecting the artist's craft. During this time, he became aware that sculpture itself is a language, a language he describes as "the silent language of form".
Upon his departure from the academy, DeWitt smoothly made the transition from student to sculptor. During the twenty five years that he resided in Europe, he worked on many commissions, both small and large. His work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe, and can be seen in many public collections, buildings and parks.
DeWitt returned to the United States in 1984. In 1991, the Holter Museum of Fine Art in Helena, Montana featured DeWitt in the largest one-man exhibition ever held in the state. This one man exhibition, entitled "The Silent Voice of Form" presented over 150 different works by DeWitt, predominantly sculpture. Following the Holter show, DeWitt participated in various group shows and received numerous awards. In 1995 he received the Gold Medal Cash Award at the National Sculpture Society in New York City, the Silver Medal in 1996, and the Bronze Medal in the year 2000.
It is evident today that DeWitt's fascination for three dimensional form and sculpture representing animals and the human figure, in particular, continue to play an important role in his work. He takes a very hands-on approach to the craft and continuously strives for improvements throughout the entire process involved in the casting and the production of bronze sculptures. He constantly fine tunes and perfects his pieces. As a result, Floyd DeWitt's work has a unique appeal which combines years of training and employs a variety of artistic expressions that emphasize the distinctive nature of our Western civilization while using a medium that can stand the test of time.
In the eyes of his peers and among a significant group of collectors found across the globe, Floyd Tennison DeWitt is considered a true American treasure.
Mr. DeWitt has built a distinguished body of work spanning more than five decades. The first half of his career flourished in the Netherlands following extensive training at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and then at the venerable Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.
During his tenure abroad, critic and art historian Arie Teeuwisse proclaimed, "One of the most important contributions to equine sculpture in the Netherlands came from American artist Floyd DeWitt, the cowboy among the Dutch artists."
Returning to his native Montana in 1984, Floyd has continued his output of award winning work. Being recognized with such prizes as the Gold and Silver medals of the National Sculpture Society in New York and another Silver medal from the National Academy of Western Art in Oklahoma City. Such peer honors have been garnered while having been represented by major galleries across the U.S.
Although Mr. DeWitt has shown and continues to show in Montana, there has never been a comprehensive retrospective of this renowned artist's work.
Noted Dutch art critic and author of numerous publications of the Fine Arts, Architecture, and Philosophy, Dr, Hans Redeker writes: "Within a great tradition (of sculpture) DeWitt stands out as an innovator in that he endows all his works, including his portraits, with an inner significance that transcends by far the individuality of the subject. Floyd DeWitt is among the most inspired, the most authentic and the most singular of the artists I have met during my career as an art critic. Singular, but without the slightest trace of trendiness or fashionable modernism, he is unshakably himself. He is one who has liberated himself from the compulsive commercialism that contaminates so much of contemporary art today. The art of Floyd DeWitt invariably employs only the purest means of sculptural expression."
--This biography contributed to by Todd Wilkinson and Floyd DeWitt