Fountain Family Group
| Fountain Family Group | |
|---|---|
 Sculpture and fountain (photographed 1995) | |
 | |
| Artist | Richard H. Ellis |
| Year | 1969 |
| Medium | Bronze sculpture |
| Location | Hilbert Museum of California Art, Orange, California, U.S. |
| 33°47′20″N 117°51′24″W / 33.7890°N 117.8566°W | |
Fountain Family Group, sometimes called Nuclear Family,[1] is a 1969 bronze sculpture and fountain by Richard H. Ellis, formerly installed along Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, California.
Description and history[edit]
The artwork features four figures: a father, a mother, a boy, and a girl. The original location of the fountain and bronze was the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and 26th Street in Santa Monica, with a street address of 2600 Wilshire Blvd.[2]
The 8 ft (2.4 m) tall[3] sculpture was installed in 1969 at one of Howard Ahmanson Sr.’s richly decorated Home Savings of America branches, along with a mosaic mural called Pleasures Along the Beach by Millard Sheets.[4] The Millard Sheets Studio hired Ellis several times. Ellis created statues for five Home Savings branches, all on family themes.[4][5]
Family was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's Save Outdoor Sculpture! program in 1995.[6]
The fountain and mural at the former Santa Monica branch were relocated to the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange, California in 2019, along with a third piece from the building, John Edward Svenson's cast bronze Child on a Dolphin.[7][8] Family and Dolphin will be installed in the museum's California native plant garden when it reopens after expansion in 2023; the Sheets mosaic will be installed on the facade of the museum building.[1]
The original building also featured stained glass windows by Susan Hertel; they were removed and put into storage in 2021.[9]
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Close-up of mother -
Father and son
Further reading[edit]
Arenson, Adam (2018). Banking on beauty : Millard Sheets and midcentury commercial architecture in California. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-4773-1529-3. OCLC 986993216.
References[edit]
- ^ a b Arp, Dennis (2022-02-22). "Chapman Announces Plans to Greatly Expand Hilbert Museum of California Art". Chapman Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ Arenson, Adam (2018-08-01). "Master Inventory of Millard Sheets Studio and Home Savings Art and Architecture". Banking on Beauty.
- ^ "Richard H. Ellis - Curriculum Vitae". www.richardhellis-sculptor.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ a b "Richard H. Ellis Sculpture to Be Preserved and Displayed at Forest Lawn". MyNewsLA.com. 2020-06-25. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ "Millard Sheets Public Art Sculpture Identified in San Marino" (PDF). The Grapevine: Newsletter of the San Marino Historical Society: 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ "Fountain Family Group, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
- ^ "Citywide - New home for Millard Sheets mural". Santa Monica Daily Press. 2019-06-06. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ Chang, Richard (2019-06-14). "Chapman's Hilbert Museum of California Art to Expand and Nearly Triple In Size". Voice of OC. Archived from the original on 2022-04-22. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ "Another One Bites the Dust: Santa Monica Edition (Updated for 2022)". Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-10-15.