Hart, Frederick E.

Hart, Frederick E. (1943–  ) sculptor; born in Atlanta, Ga. Starting out as a painter, he was attracted to sculpture and decided he should learn the craft of stonecutting; in 1967 he got himself a job with the on-going construction of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and within a couple of years was an apprentice stonecutter, rendering ornamental decorations. In 1971, he opened his own studio to work out his ideas for the west facade, and in 1974 his design for the main entrance won an international competition; the finished work, carved from Indiana limestone in a traditional romantic-realist style—most notably the tympanum, Ex Nihilo —was dedicated in May 1990. Before this, he had placed third in the competition for the Vietnam War Memorial; in the uproar that followed the choice of My Lin's wall, he was awarded a second commission, and his realistic bronze, known variously as "Three Servicemen" or "Three Fighting Men," was dedicated in 1984. He later served on the board of the President's Commission on Fine Arts and took it upon himself to attack what he regarded as a lack of spiritual values in much modern art, although he himself worked in lucite and other plastics.