Robert Cook Biography


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"Roman sculpture...that exemplifies the best that human hands can do...and not only Roman hands...there is Robert Cook , an American who lives in Rome and makes his works in bronze..."
Charles Kuralt CBS Sunday Morning June 30, 1991



Robert Cook, an American sculptor who has lived in Rome for fifty years, has achieved worldwide fame as an "artist who can capture motion in fluid bronze."
His huge bronze statue of an early American dinosaur attracts constant attenton on New York's Park Avenue at 51st Street. In the capitol city of Canberra, Australia his large fountain in bronze of the god Thespis adorns the cultural center. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia he is represented by a thrusting study of a horserace and a giant camel.
A keen student of animals in motion, Cook is also attracted to sporting figures and dancers, and his sketchbooks are filled with drawings of skiers and skaters, pole vaulter and tap dancers as well as studies of elephants, lions pelicans, flamingoes, and towering giraffes locked in combat.
The sculptor was born in Boston, Mass. and graduated from Milton Academy. He studied sculpture in Boston with George Demetrios and served in the US Corps of Engineering during World War II as a map and model maker . He then moved to Rome with a Fulbright Grant for advanced study.
Cook spends most of his time in his house north of Rome. His two children, Jenny and Henry were the models during their childhood for his "Family Album", a collection of statues now on permanent exhibition at Milton Academy.
Cook has been honored with prizes from the Prix de Rome, the National Academy of Arts and Letters and the Tiffany Foundation. He is a member of the National Sculpture Society, the Sculptors Guild and is an honorary trustee of the Sculpture Center. For more information see "Who's Who in America".


ONE MAN SHOWS

NEWMAN SAUNDERS GALLERY WAYNE, PA. 1999
SIMMONS GALLERY LONDON, ENGLAND1998,2000
ELAINE BENSON GALLERY BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. 1997 ,1998
NEWMAN SAUNDERS GALLERY WAYNE PA 1991,1993 1996
THE GLASS ART GALLERY TORONTO, CANADA 1991
THE SCULPTURE CENTER NEW YORK CITY 1953 through 1983
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY OMAHA, NEB. 1978
SUN COMPANY HEADQUARTERS RADNOR, PA. 1978
SCHENECTADY MUSEUM SCHENECTADY, NY 1977
CONCOURSE GALLERY BOSTON, MASS. 1977
NESTO GALLERY MILTON, MASS. 1976
ART INSTITUTE BOSTON, MASS 1974,1975.
CENTERVILLE GALLERY CENTERVILLE, DEL. 1971
MICKELSON GALLERY WASHINGTON D.C. 1971
WELLFLEET ART GALLERY WELLFLEET, MASS. 1970 1972
MUSEUM OF ARIZONA UNIVERSITY TUCSON, ARIZ. 1969 1970
WALTER C. ROWE MUSEUM COURTLAND, VA. 1968
VIRGINIA MUSEUM RICHMOND, VA. 1968
NORFOLK MUSEUM NORFOLK, VA. 1968
TYLER SCHOOL OF ART ROME, ITALY 1968
MINT MUSEUM CHARLOTTE, N.C. 1967
HUNTER GALLERY MUSEUM CHATANOOGA, TENN. 1967
BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BIRMINGHAM, AL. 1967
CARROLL REECE MUSEUM JOHNSON CITY, TENN. 1968
GALLERY 88 ROME, ITALY 1963,1969,1979
RAVINIA FESTIVAL CHICAGO, ILL. 1963
MUNSON WILLIAMS PROCTOR INST. UTICA, N.Y. 1961
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART BOSTON, MASS. 1951
GALLERIA CHIURAZZI ROME, ITALY1950


PUBLICATIONS AND FILMS ON COOK AND HIS WORK

FAMILY ALBUM IN BRONZE, a book of the 127 figures of his two children, tracing their yearly growth from birth to age 20 -- 1976
TWELVE COMMISSIONS, large works in public places-- 1978
IN MOTION, a book of his figures in dynamic movement --1979
CIRCLES AND CYCLES a book of his latest work --1997
ONE HUNDRED MEDALS (in progress ) 2001

Four major publications---ALL AROUND TOWN, A WALKING GUIDE TO OUTDOOR SCULPTURE IN NEW YORK CITY (Scribners), THE ART COMMISSION AND MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY'S GUIDE TO MANHATTAN'S OUTDOOR SCULPTURE (Simon and Schuster) and ROME (TIME-LIFE BOOKS)---have each devoted a page to Cook and his work

A 30 minute documentary film THE WORLD OF ROBERT COOK has been shown on public television stations. It was produced in l979 by Beachtree Productions (New York and London)

CABLE NEWS NETWORK (CNN) filmed a news feature for television on Cook"s Saudi Arabian commission HORSERACE, broadcast in l982
CBS TELEVISION produced a feature on COOK IN ROME for the CHARLES KURALT SUNDAY MORNING SHOW. This was aired on June 30, l991.