Michael Lantz, Scale model for Man Controlling Trade, 1937, plaster, 19 1⁄2 x 18 5⁄8 x 9 5⁄8 in. (49.6 x 47.4 x 24.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1982.100
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Scale model for Man Controlling Trade
- Artist
- Date
- 1937
- Location
- Dimensions
- 19 1⁄2 x 18 5⁄8 x 9 5⁄8 in. (49.6 x 47.4 x 24.5 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the artist
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- plaster
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Allegory — other — trade
- Study — sculpture model
- Figure male — full length
- Animal — horse
- Object Number
- 1982.100
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.