Sun, Jul 20 2008
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Published May 14, 2008 08:35 am - Spirits of Commerce and Industry to adorn new Fed building. “We’re producing more sculptures than any civilization at any time in history,” Langland said. “This is the golden age of sculpture.” Golden age Spirits of Commerce and Industry to adorn new Fed building By Tom Blakey THE NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (NORMAN, Okla.) NORMAN, Okla. — You’ve come a long way, baby.
In 1921, renowned American sculptor Henry Hering designed two relief sculptures — the Spirits of Commerce and Industry — to adorn the front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s headquarters building. The sculptures, each rising two stories in height, were the building’s defining features for those entering the bank, historians say. When the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s new headquarters opens July 1 at 1 Memorial Drive in Kansas City, visitors once again will see the Spirits, as they pass between the two, three-dimensional sculptures based on Hering’s designs. They were created by Indiana artist Tuck Langland and cast at The Crucible in Norman. “We are thrilled with it — it turned out just as I’d hoped,” said Federal Reserve Bank President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas Hoenig. Hoenig (pronounced Hawn-ig), Langland and representatives of The Crucible met Tuesday afternoon at the foundry on the corner of Jones Avenue and Tonhawa Street, to view the 12-foot-tall Spirits of Commerce and Industry, and to decide on the color of patina — the surface coating created by the use of heat and various chemical compounds. Hoenig said he first met with Langland last June. “We did some research and learned Tuck Langland was well-known as a student of Henry Hering,” he said. “We found him and talked to him. We were excited and he was excited and it was a good match,” Hoenig said. Langland has been a professional sculptor for more than 40 years, and has public sculptures throughout the world and in the collections of museums including the British Museum in London and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. He is a professor emeritus at Indiana University in South Bend, where he taught from 1971 to 2003. Langland said The Crucible has proven a perfect foundry for many of his works. He credits the craftsmanship of The Crucible employees. “There are very skilled workers here. They fuss and get it right — I love these guys,” he said. Langland said he just finished touring eight foundries in the Northwest, including Montana, Illinois, Washington and Iowa. “There are about 200 foundries in the country. This one is right up there with the best of them,” Langland said. “The sculpture business is booming,” even as the price of clay has risen from $2 to $5 a pound, he said. Langland said he estimates that 15,000 to 30,000 public monuments have been created in the U.S. over the past 10 years. 
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