Leo Friedlander

Leo Friedlander exhibited drawings at the Art Students League in New York when he was only twelve years old. He worked as a modeler in an ornamental shop for many years, then studied in Brussels, Paris, and Rome before returning to New York. He is best known for his colossal public monuments, including the equestrian statues Valor and Sacrifice at Washington's Memorial Bridge, and the thirty-three-foot figures representing the "four freedoms" (speech, press, religion, and assembly) created for the 1939 New York World's Fair. He was president of the National Sculpture Society during the 1950s and often voiced his strong opinions on what qualified as fine art, describing one piece of abstract public sculpture in Los Angeles as a "metallic monstrosity."