Roosevelt Memorial sculptor Robert Graham dies
Last Updated: Sunday, December 28, 2008 | 10:33 AM ET
The Associated Press
Sculptor Robert Graham, whose massive bronze works mark civic monuments across the U.S., including the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, has died at age 70.
Graham, who had been ailing, died Saturday at the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital in California with his family at his side, including his wife, Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston.
Robert Graham with his wife, actress Anjelica Huston, in 2006. The two married in 1992. (Mark J. Terril/Associated Press)
"Robert was an amazing sculptor who forever shaped the presence of sculpture art throughout California and the world. His work was truly influential and he will forever remain an icon in this state," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a release.
He said he and his wife, Maria Shriver, were deeply saddened by Graham's death.
In Washington, Graham's bronze sculptures mark the Roosevelt memorial, where bronze panels symbolize the 54 social programs that were initiated under the president's New Deal.
Graham also created the life-size, bronze figure of Roosevelt in his wheelchair at the entrance of the memorial.
In Detroit, Graham's Joe Louis Memorial honors the boxer with a 7.3-metre bronze monument in the shape of a massive fist and forearm suspended from a pyramid structure.
His 5.4-metre monument to jazz great Charlie Parker, depicting the musician's head above the words "Bird Lives," sits in Kansas City, Mo.
Designed Ellington tribute
In New York City's Central Park, Graham's Duke Ellington Memorial stands nine metres high, with three columns topped with the muses holding up a 2.4-metre figure of the musician next to a piano.
Graham designed a number of prominent works in Los Angeles, including the Great Bronze Doors of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The 23-tonne entryway was completed over five years by about 150 artists.
Another work in Los Angeles is Olympic Gateway, with the headless figures of a musclebound man and a woman. It marks the entryway to the Memorial Coliseum, where the 1984 Olympics were held.
"As an artist, he was always on the cutting edge," friend and artist Laddie John Dill told the Los Angeles Times.
"He started with Plexiglas boxes … and then going to bronze and monumental bronze, and he was starting to work with concrete and glass. His head was obviously way ahead of his hands. And the tragedy is that Bob was just getting started."
Earlier this month, Graham was inducted into the California Museum's California Hall of Fame.
Graham, born in Mexico City in 1938, was educated at San Jose State College and the San Francisco Art Institute.
He lived in London for a few years with his first wife, Joey, and their son, Steven, before moving to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. The couple eventually divorced.
In 1990, Graham met Huston at a dinner party. They were married in 1992.
