Focus on Young Abe Lincoln and discuss the Artist.
David K. Rubins, a native of Minneapolis, studied at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in New York and the Académie Julian and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Rubins worked closely with James Earle Fraser, designer of the Buffalo nickel and End of the Trail, for seven years in New York. His awards include the Paris Prize in Sculpture (1924), the Prix de Rome (1928), Fellow in Sculpture Award from the American Academy in Rome and the Grant and Sculpture Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.Rubins moved to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1935 to join the faculty at the John Herron Art Institute where he taught until 1967 and then an additional three years after the Herron Art Institute merged with Indiana University. He held the chairmanship of the sculpture department from 1935 to 1968. In 1970, Rubins retired and became an artist-in-residence at Herron. In 1954, Rubins book, The Human Figure, an Anatomy for Artists, was published. Other Indianapolis works of art Rubins is known for is the bust of late Indiana Governor Henry Schricker, the Eli Lilly monument in Crown Hill Cemetery, and a bust of Evans Wollens Sr.Rubins' work has been exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, National Academy of Design, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Architectural League of New York, and the "American Sculpture Today" show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.Rubins' inspiration for Young Abe Lincoln came after reading several books on Lincoln and his life, as well as looking at other sculptures of Lincoln.  Some of these others sculptures included the Abraham Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Mount Rushmore depiction by Gutzon Borglum, and the Lincoln sculpture by Henry Hering in Indianapolis' University Park.
Henry Schricker Beaux Arts Institute of Design Indianapolis Indiana University École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts David K. Rubins Prix de Rome New York James Earle Fraser Crown Hill Cemetery End of the Trail Architectural League of New York chairmanship Indianapolis Museum of Art American Academy in Rome Gutzon Borglum artist-in-residence Minneapolis Institute of Art Indiana Buffalo nickel Académie Julian National Academy of Design Abraham Lincoln Mount Rushmore Eli Lilly Henry Hering National Institute of Arts and Letters Lincoln Memorial Metropolitan Museum of Art