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  • Marshall M. Fredericks' Spirit of Detroit.

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September 28, 2012

Sketches, sculptures exhibit

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TRAVERSE CITY — The iconic imagery of one of the 20th century's most prominent Michigan sculptors is coming to the Dennos Museum Center.

"Sketches to Sculptures, Rendered Reality: Sixty Years with Marshall M. Fredericks" opens Sept. 30 and runs through Jan. 6. It features 30 small sculptures that became public outdoor pieces, like the "Spirit of Detroit" and the Cleveland War Memorial Fountain known as "The Fountain of Eternal Life." The exhibition also includes related drawings and sketches that showcase the creative process of Fredericks both as a designer and sculptor.

"What you're seeing in this exhibit is how he thinks, how he develops his pieces around their settings," said Dennos Museum Center Director Gene Jenneman.

Fredericks taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills from 1932 until he enlisted in the armed forces in 1942. Following his discharge he began his long career as a designer and sculptor of public monuments with studios in Royal Oak and Bloomfield Hills. In northern Michigan he is best known for his Cross in the Woods in Indian River and his Two Bears in front of Corson Auditorium at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Fredericks died in 1998 and the contents of his studios were donated to the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University. The Dennos exhibition was organized from those collections.

-- Marta Hepler Drahos

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