Gilbert Franklin

Click to tour Franklin's work

GILBERT FRANKLIN was a sculptor of great importance. His worked is abstract, figurative, and a combination of both -- ranging in size from 6 inches to 8 feet tall, and including such varied subjects as bikers, dancers, odalisques, couples and Greek Gods. A recently-discovered collection of special & important small bronze studies made in the early 1960s for his important sculpture commission called "Orpheus Ascending" are featured at the Gallery.

"Touring Gilbert Franklin's studio of finished pieces and wax forms in progress," Lynn Stanley wrote, "A restrained elegance and simplicity of line were evident everywhere. The features of each face were nondescript, the forms stylized; one had the sense of the archetypal body moving in time, not confined to the specifics of identity."

In a group of recent bronzes described by Andree van der Wende in the Cape Cod Times as "tender and elegantly refined," Franklin explored the complementary and dramatic integration of energy and rhythm with a series of dancers, the figures still and in motion at the same time. The artist catches that dramatic moment ­ the pause, and the movement, the swirl and whirl of the costume. The artist's improvisational process, like that of a jazz musician, creates an intricate harmony. Other works include divas ­ great stage personae ­ in performance. The figures undulate like a wave on the sea.

The human figure has always been a major source of Inspiration for Franklin. Much of his work has antecedents in the classical sculpture of Greece and Rome -- classical, but expressing a contemporary aesthetic through its often rough surfaces, boldly sliced interacting forms and sharp edges. Franklin has said, "I do basically two types of sculpture: one, figurative ­ both realistic and/or abstracted related to the figure; the other, abstracted forms derived from natural forms found on the Cape like shells and rocks." Franklin primarily worked in bronze, but also had an interest in other mediums. He also had a gift for portraiture. He sculpted many of his friends including his famed teacher John Frazier. Describing his work in portraiture, Franklin said in the interview with Lynn Stanley: "In portraits, I don¹t feel constricted to any one approach. Each piece is tied to capturing the character. I see it as a kind of freedom I afford myself. You don't go into a thing seeking an experience but if you go into the process it becomes an experience." He has always been much more interested in the formal concerns than in the narrative.

Franklin came to Provincetown in 1938 to study with John Frazier at the old Hawthorne School. He always said Provincetown wasn't much different than it is today "except for the large condos and inns. Commercial Street had two way traffic, if you can believe that, and everywhere you went you saw people painting. It's always been a fascinating place. It think it's a place of freedom; people can do what they like, mostly, and other people let them do it"
Gil Franklin was born in England and grew up in Attleboro, MA. His Father was a jeweler and so he was exposed to the tools of working with metals at a very young age. In high school he took an evening course in drawing with an instructor who taught at Rhode Island School of Design and who encouraged him to attend art school. He went to RISD, and continued his studies at the Museo Nancional in Mexico City and the American Academy in Rome.

He has served as Professor of Sculpture and Chairman and Dean of the Division of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, and has taught at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. His most recent awards and commissions include The Ella Jackson Chair, at Castle Hill in Truro in 2003 and a fourteen foot sculpture commission in Memory of Rev. Dom Peter Sidler at the Portsmouth Abbey School, Portsmouth, RI; and a major one-man exhibition at Saint Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH where he had served as a Trustee for 15 years. He received the Prix de Rome in Sculpture, was a Fellow at the American Academy of Rome, and was named an H.M. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at RISD. He has served as a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome, Augustus Saint Gaudens, and the University of Pennsylvania and as Overseer at Boston University, School of Fine Arts. For the past 15 years, Franklin served as Trustee, co-chairman of the Board and as Chairman and Member of the Visual Arts Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Michael Mazur wrote recently in FAWCs Memorial to Franklin: "His steady leadership helped to steer us away from the dangers of debt toward greater securityŠ.Gil was a natural steward, conserver, and conciliatorŠHis work was characterized by a love of form, especially those sensual forms of the human body abstracted to very particular telling curves and volumes. He created the beautiful medal with which FAWC honors distinguished artists and writers whose careers are models of mentoring and generosity. (In other words, people like Gil.)"

During his long and impressive career, Franklin has received many public commissions for his sculpture including pieces for the Hallmark Collection, Kansas City; the Gannett Building, Arlington, VA; the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, DC, the Harry S. Truman Memorial, Independence, MO, and the Orpheus Ascending Fountain at the Frazier Memorial in Providence, RI. His outdoor sculpture, Seaforms, stands at the Wellfleet Public Library. His sculpture can be found in the permanent collections of important Museums across the Country.