Man Controlling Trade (Model, Federal Trade Commission Building)

Michael Lantz, Man Controlling Trade (Model, Federal Trade Commission Building), 1937, cast 1939, plaster, 14 ³⁄₄ x 17 ³⁄₈ x 7 ¹⁄₂ in. (37.5 x 44.2 x 19.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1983.30

Artwork Details

Title: Man Controlling Trade (Model, Federal Trade Commission Building)
Artist: Michael Lantz
Date: 1937, cast 1939
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
Luce Foundation Center
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4th Floor
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48A
Dimensions: 14 ³⁄₄ x 17 ³⁄₈ x 7 ¹⁄₂ in. (37.5 x 44.2 x 19.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the artist
Mediums: plaster
Mediums Description: plaster
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Allegory — other — trade
Study — sculpture model
Figure male — full length
Animal — horse
Object Number: 1983.30
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1983.30

Artwork Description

In 1938, Michael Lantz won the competition to design two sculptures for the Apex Building, home of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. The widely publicized “Apex Competition” was the largest American sculpture competition ever held, receiving almost five hundred models from more than two hundred artists. Lantz submitted small models of his designs, each showing a heroic figure straining to control a powerful horse. The final, seventeen-foot-long statues were completed in 1942 and installed outside the eastern entrance of the Federal Trade Commission building, where they can be seen today.