Goddess in Progress

Digital Resources

Dig deeper into Goddess in Progress with digital resources below.

Alan LeQuire

Films & Videos

LeQuire's Journey & Style

Virtual Exhibit

**Who is Alan LeQuire?**

Thirty-five years ago, Alan LeQuire became Nashville’s most prominent sculptor with the unveiling of *Athena Parthenos*. Now, he is returning to the Parthenon with a new body of work that celebrates contemporary people. Working on a monumental scale usually reserved for mythological figures and royalty, LeQuire aims to elevate regular people that have inspired him. Several Nashville natives are featured prominently in his selection of activists, musicians, and athletes, highlighting the everyday heroes among us.
Read more about Alan LeQuire by clicking button below.

More information about Alan LeQuire

LeQuire’s Journey and Style

**Atelier Tradition**

A centuries-old practice, the atelier tradition refers to master artists working with student artists.
In high school, LeQuire studied with Nashville artist Thomas Puryear Mims. Mims was a Vanderbilt professor who often lectured on the Parthenon and sculpted multiple versions of Athena’s head.
**Learn more:**

Ateiler Tradition- Charles H. Cecil Studios
Recent article- “The Modern Relevance of the French Atelier Tradition”

In the Studio, 1881, Marie Bashkirtseva, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“I loved carving and I loved the organic process of letting form appear on its own out of the material, but I wanted to know everything about making figurative sculpture and felt I needed classical training. However, in the 1970s classical training in sculpture did not exist in the United States. I realized I would have to apprentice myself to older artists. I went to France with the Vanderbilt program in Aix-en-Provence, and completed my degree in English literature and art history while I was there.

During this period, I attended classes at the Beaux Arts schools in Paris and in Aix. I managed to find classes in drawing from a live model and attended those classes in Aix and later at the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Rome. While still in France, I managed to secure an apprenticeship for the following year with Milton Hebald (1917-2015), an American sculptor living in Italy.”

— Alan LeQuire

Other Inspiration:

LeQuire also credits inspiration from Nashville sculptor William Edmondson (1874-1951). Born to formerly enslaved parents, Edmondson only began sculpting in his 60s. A few years later, Edmondson was the first African-American artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art.
“Edmondson carved gravestones, free-standing figurative sculpture, and garden ornaments, using discarded blocks of limestone and chisels fashioned from railroad spikes. Animals, biblical subjects, and secular figures like Eleanor Roosevelt and Nashville school teachers dominated his repertoire.” -Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, *African-American Art: 19th and 20th-Century Selections*
“Edmondson's figure style is extremely simple—human faces are frequently curved forms with a few simple indentations denoting features. Feet are often without toes, arms without wrists, and legs without ankles. Textures are usually articulated in the hair of humans and fur of animals. Anatomical proportions are distorted in a manner that lends a vigorous and expressive effect to the pieces.”-Regenia A. Perry, *Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art*
More on Edmonson- Artist William Edmondson, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Podcast- This is Nashville: The Legacy of sculptor William Edmondson

William Edmonson, Public Domain

Films & Videos

Parts of Athena: The Goddess Awakens, play in the exhibit. Click the video to the left to watch the whole documentary.

Recordings from symposia on topics ranging from the Athena gilding project to an imagining of the statue base in color are below. We have also added two short K-12 videos on Athena!

20 Years of Gold on Athena