Frederick Elliott Hart was a late twentieth-century sculptor whose work recalled the figurative tradition of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hart studied at the University of South Carolina, American University, and the Corcoran School of Art, and was an apprentice to ornamental plasterer George Gianetti and to sculptor Felix de Weldon. In the late 1960s, he became an apprentice stone carver at the Washington National Cathedral. In 1974 he won the design competition for tympana based on the creation story for the cathedral’s main facade, a work that took more than a decade to complete; he also sculpted statues of St. Paul, St. Peter, and Adam for the cathedral. Hart’s most widely known work is the Three Servicemen, a controversial sculptural addition to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In his later career, Hart sculpted with acrylic resins in a process that he patented. Hart was awarded an honorary degree from the University of South Carolina and received a National Sculpture Society Henry Hering Award in 1987 and a Presidential Design Excellence Award in 1988.
CFA Service:
1985–1989