Aspi­ra­tion

1914, Bronze

Aspi­ra­tion was cre­ated in response to a dis­cus­sion Polasek had with another sculp­tor who believed that a com­po­si­tion should be made to present one side to the viewer, the other views being unim­por­tant.  Polasek felt that even though there is a dis­tinct “face” to most sculp­tures, all sides should and can be equally inter­est­ing to the viewer. A seated female holds musi­cal pipes in her right hand, while her raised left arm cir­cles a cherub head. As she kisses the cherub she drinks in a breath of musi­cal inspi­ra­tion. In 1915, Aspi­ra­tion won the Widener Gold Medal at the Penn­syl­va­nia Acad­emy of the Fine Arts’ annual exhibition.

 

For­est Idyl

1924, Bronze

After this lyri­cal sculp­ture was exhib­ited at the Art Insti­tute, art critic Eleanor Jew­ett of the Chicago Tri­bune wrote:  “This beau­ti­ful bronze group is one of the most per­fect and exquis­ite con­cep­tions in the exhi­bi­tion, in either oil or sculp­ture. The won­der­ful mod­el­ing of the deer and the fawn mark it for a mas­ter­piece. The ten­der union of the dryad and her wild for­est com­pan­ion is a beau­ti­ful achieve­ment. …”