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Competing for Trade

World Trade Week occurs annually on the third week of May.

Man Controlling Trade is a winning allegory for an abstract concept.

In July 1937, the Treasury Department invited all American sculptors to submit models in competition for two sculptures. These were to be carved in stone and located on pedestals on the East Terrace of the Federal Trade Commission Building, within the area known as the Federal Triangle in Washington, D.C. Approximately 234 sculptors submitted a total of 489 models.

In January 1938, the competition for both sculptures was won by Michael Lantz, an unknown twenty-nine-year-old sculptor. The outcome was hailed as a triumph of the democratic principles of fairness over the elements of favoritism. Lantz's winning designs stood out among the majority of other models by virtue of both their simplicity, boldness, and strength as figurative groups and the monumentality of their conception in relation to the proposed setting. Seen here is Lantz's Man Controlling Trade, his winning, preliminary scale and competition model [1":1'] for the monumental limestone group now located on Pennsylvania Avenue, just before Sixth Street, NW.

Source: George Gurney. (Curatorial files, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1995).

Pictured: Michael Lantz, 1908–1988, Scale Model for Man Controlling Trade, n.d., plaster cast, 19 1/2 x 18 5/8 x 9 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist.