Biografie von Bernard LANGLAIS (1921-1977)

Birth place: Old Town, ME

Death place: Portland, ME

Addresses: NYC, 1956-66/Thomaston, ME; Cushing, ME, year round from 1966

Profession: Sculptor, painter

Studied: Corcoran Sch. Art, with Ben Shahn; Skowhegan Sch. Painting & Sculpture, with Henry Varnum Poor; Brooklyn Mus. Art Sch., with Max Beckmann; Acad. Grande Chaumière, Paris; Acad. Art, Fulbright grant, Oslo, Norway; and with Richard Lahey.

Exhibited: Philips Exeter Acad., Exeter, NY; Seton Hall Univ.; Bowdoin Col.; Univ. of Maine; BM, 1952 (grant), 1957; Wash. AA, 1950; Univ. Maine (solo); American Embassy, Oslo, Norway, 1955 (solo); RoKo Gal., NYC, 1956 (solo), 1958 (solo); Area Gal., NY, 1957 (solo); AIC, 1960-61 & 1964; CI,1961-1962; MoMA,1961-63; WMAA, 1960-63, 1966; Dallas Mus. of Contemporary Art; Yale Univ.; Houston Inst. of Contemp. Art;1964 World's Fair; The XX siecle Gal., Paris; Ogunquit Mus of Am. Art; Inst. Int. Educ. Show, traveled around the world, 1969. Awards: scholarship, CGA exh., to Skowbegan, Me.; Fulbright grant to Norway, 1954-55, 1956; Ford Found. Purchase Award, 1962; Nat. Acad. Arts & Lett. Purchase Award, 1969; Guggenheim fellow, 1972.

Member: Maine State Commission on the Arts & Humanities, 1973-77

Work: Univ. Maine, Augusta; American Embassy, Oslo, Norway; WMAA; AIC; PMA; Chrysler Mus, Norfolk, VA; Ogunquit Mus. Amer. Art , Maine; Colby Col.; Portland (ME) Mus. of Art; Commissions: wood wall reliefs, Dryden Assocs, Pittsburgh, Pa, 1968; "Indian" (wood sculpture), Town of Skowhegan, Maine, 1969; "Jungle" (wood relief mural), Phila. Zoological Gardens, Pa., 1970; wood sculpture, Munic. Park, Kansas City, Mo., 1970; barn Interior (wood relief mural), Robert Montgomery, North Haven, Maine, 1971.

Comments: In 1957, shifted from painting to mostly working in wood (reliefs, assemblage, constructions, using animal motifs with slightly skewed perspective). Believed painting was ninety percent intellectual, whereas working with wood was evenly balanced between the intellectual and the physical.

Sources: WW73; Edith Dugmore, Bernard Langlais," Craft Horizons (March 4, 1966); Jay Molishever, "Big stuff, the wood sculptures of Bernard Langlais," Boston Sun Globe Mag (May 9, 1971); Isabel Currier, "Maine's Bernard Langlais and his gigantic art," Down East Mag (June, 1972); Bernard Langlais: Works on Paper (Brunswick, Maine: Hobe Sound Galleries North, 1990); Bernard Langlais: Sculptor (exh. catalog, Ogunquit, Maine: Ogunquit Mus. Of Am. Art, 1994). Addl. info. courtesy Selma Koss Holtz, Waban, Mass. "