Description
Paul Wegner American Artist and Sculptor: Soon after graduating college and becoming a professional sculptor Wegner was given his first large commission by the National Geographic Society in 1976. The project required Paul Wegner to create 9 life size figures of primitive man for their new museum exhibit in Washington D.C. Paul Wegner had meetings with archeologists from the Smithsonian, such as Mary Leaky, Dr. Dale Stewart, and many more from National Geographic, including their very talented creative staff. Research for this project led Wegner to the works of painter Norman Rockwell, sculptor Rodin, and more importantly, Rodin’s protege, Malvina Hoffman. What sparked Wegner’s interest, aside from their great approach to depicting human anatomy and expression was infusing emotion into the faces of their work, something that National Geographic people stressed with me for this project. Give our ancestors feelings! That was the order of the day. Fragmentation The term fragmentation, now used to define Paul Wegner’s style, came about when a newspaper reporter in Virginia interviewed him early in his career while working on the Primitive Man project and developing this new approach.
