C. Paul Jennewein: An Usher for a New American Style

C. Paul Jennewein, Coral, 1926, silvered bronze, 32 ½” x 15” x 14”. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Joel Klayman in honor of Max and Dorothy Diamond, Tampa Museum of Art.

Polk Museum of Art – Lakeland

By Claire Fenton

This exhibition displays a selection of works belonging to the collection of the Tampa Museum of Art. They form part of a collection of more than 2,000 works donated to the museum by the artist’s family.

C. Paul Jennewein is well-known for being one of the artists who popularized the Art Deco style in the United States. Born in Germany in 1890, he emigrated to the United States in 1907, and shortly after arriving he began receiving national and international commissions owing to his abilities as a sculptor and painter. Jennewein studied sculpture at the Art Student League in New York and later on in 1916 was granted a scholarship to study at the American Academy in Rome. His sojourn in Rome and the knowledge he acquired about Greco-Roman mythology and classic sculpture definitively marked his style. Among his best-known works are the pedimental sculptures at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, an installation on the façade of the British Empire Building at Rockefeller Center, N.Y., two statues at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., and two relief panels installed inside the White House.

Through July 20, 2013.