Sculpture Saturday returns to the North Carolina Arboretum near Asheville, NC to share Zenos Frudakis’ statue of Frederick Law Olmstead. Olmstead is considered to be the father of American landscape architecture.

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The statue of Frederick Law Olmstead stands in the Blue Ridge Court at the North Carolina Arboretum

The bronze statue is eight feet tall.  Frudakis commented on his work:

It was important for me to create a sculpture which embodied the idea of Frederick Law Olmsted as a visionary of monumental proportions. In his hands he holds the abstract topographic map, which came from his mind and became the land that he stood on. 

Olmstead (1822-1903) was a renaissance man who began his professional life as an author, slavery critic, and a journalist for the newspaper that became the New York Times. Olmstead and his partner Calvert Vaux designed New York’s Central Park. Olmstead was selected as the architect for the grounds of George Vanderbilt II’s Biltmore Estate also in Asheville, NC.

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Biltmore Estate, Biltmore.com

The Olmstead sculpture occupies a privileged position overlooking the inviting grounds of the arboretum not far from his breathtaking landscape design for the Biltmore Estate.

Sculpture Saturday is a challenge hosted by Susan Kelly at No Fixed Plans.

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