biography of Brenda PUTNAM (1890-1975)

Birth place: Minneapolis, MN

Addresses: Wash., DC, active 1911-13; NYC; Wilton, CT

Profession: Sculptor, writer, teacher

Studied: BMFA Sch., 1905-07, drawing, with Paxton and Hale, modeling with Mary E. Moore and Bela Pratt; Corcoran Sch. Art; ASL, with James Earle Fraser, Charles Grafly, and later with Archipenko (1920s); Corcoran Sch., Wash., DC, with E.C. Messer; in Florence, Italy with Libero Andreotti, 1920s

Exhibited: PAFA Ann., 1910, 1913-15, 1919-32, 1940-44 (gold 1923); Int. Exhib., Rome, 1911; AIC, 1917 (prize); Arch. Lg., 1924 ( Avery prize); Grand Gal., 1930 (prize), 1939 (prize); NAD, 1922, (Barnett prize), 1929 (medal), 1935 (Watrous gold medal); NAWA, 1923 (prize), 1928 (prize); Grand Central Art Gals., NYC (retrospective); NSS; Ferargil Gal., NYC, 1947 (solo). Other awards: Competition for Congressional Medal, presented to Fleet Admiral King, 1947.

Member: NIAL; ANA; NA, 1936; NSS; NAWA; NAC.

Work: Syracuse University Art Collection (archival material is located in the University's Carnegie Lib.); Dallas Mus. FA; NIAL; Hispanic Mus.; "Puck," in front of the Folger Shakespeare Lib., Wash., DC; Norton Gal. Art; Brookgreen Gardens, SC; Lynchburg, VA; West Palm Beach, FL; Acad. Arts & Letters; Hall of Fame, NY; Detroit Inst. A.; Lynchburg, VA; South Orange, NJ; mural reliefs: USPO, Caldwell, NJ; USPO, St. Cloud, MN; marble fig., Norton Gal. Art; 3 plaques, doorway over the visitor's gallery, House of Representatives, Wash., DC; Rock Creek Cemetery, Wash., DC; portrait bust of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Am. Hall of Fame; bust of Susan B. Anthony for Hall of Fame, 1952.

Comments: WPA artist. Best known for her garden figures, portraits busts, bas reliefs, and small statuettes. She actively exhibited her work from 1910 on. To further develop her style around 1927, she worked with Libero Andreotti in Florence and Archipenko in New York. She retired in 1952. In 1964, at the request of Syracuse University, all pertinent data relating to the artist's fifty years of creating and teaching sculpture, was collected, and in 1965 was deposited at the University's Carnegie Library. Author: The Sculptor's Way, 1939; Animal X-rays, 1947.

Sources: WW66; WW47; McMahan, Artists of Washington, DC; Pisano, One Hundred Years...the National Association of Women Artists, 78; Rubinstein, American Women Artists, 248-49; Falk, Exh. Record Series.

Legals