Treasure Island Sculptors from Gladding McBean

Bruce Marwick, President of the Sacramento Art Deco Society, will tell the story of the Gladding McBean artists who participated in creating many of the public art pieces for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE). These artists created sculptures and bas-reliefs for buildings around the United States in the 1920s and early 1930s. In the late 1930s, these same artists were called upon to create monumental and heroic sculptural pieces for the exposition on Treasure Island.

Gladding McBean (GMB) was the largest maker of architectural terra cotta in the western United States in the first half of the 20th Century, employing dozens of sculptors and artists at its Northern and Southern California plants. Additionally, GMB’s design studios worked with noted artists including Antonio Sotomayor and Helen Bruton, and architect Timothy Pfleuger, an influential voice on the GGIE design committee.

This program will also explore the life and work of artist Carlo Taliabue (1894-1972), who immigrated from Milan in 1924 to work for GMB in Lincoln, California. While in residence at Gladding McBean, he created monumental sculptural works for the GGIE.

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