Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church Elsmere Avenue & Poplar Drive Above front door Delmar New York 12054
Date:
1957
Notes:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York survey, 1993.
Image on file.
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
A sculpture consisting of the twelve abstract figures representing each of the apostles. The sculpture is made from stoneware with a rutile glaze. Each figure has a decipherable head, hands and feet with a "hollowed out" form. Objects associated with each apostle's significance are shown in the hollowed out area or adjacent to each figure. From the left, the saints are depicted as follows, St. Simon and St. Jude, with fishing boat, fish and Bible; St. Andrew holding a fishing net in proper right hand, next to St. Thomas holding a carpenter's square in proper right hand, and St. James with cockleshells.
In the center is St. Stephen, who is slightly larger than the others, shown with stones on and around his body. The other saints are, from left to right, St. Paul with a cross on his chest, holding a sword and the cloak of St. Stephen's martyrdom, shown next to St. Peter with a set of keys; and the four evangelists, St. Matthew with wings and proper right hand upraised, St. Mark and a lion, St. Luke and an ox's head, and St. John with an eagle at his lower proper left. The sculpture is bolted to a steel frame mounted over the entrance to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.
