NASHVILLE, TN.- Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) were the preeminent American sculptors of the Gilded Age. As friendly rivals, they transformed sculpture in the United States, producing dozens of the nation’s most recognizable public artworks—from Saint-Gaudens’s Diana atop New York City’s Madison Square Garden to French’s Seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC. Drawing upon the collections of the two artists’ historic homes, Chesterwood and the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, Monuments and Myths is the first exhibition to explore the artists’ intersecting careers and features approximately seventy sculptures, models, maquettes, and more.

While learning about the lives and careers of both artists, guests are offered an expansive narrative that reflects the multifaceted stories embedded in the art. Amid massive industrial growth and developing sociopolitical structures, the sculptors produced aesthetically graceful and socially potent artworks that shaped and reflected America’s complicated negotiation of national identity in the years between the Civil War and the Great Depression.

Dana Pilson

Join Dana Pilson, Chesterwood curatorial researcher and Monuments and Myths cocurator, for an illustrated visit “behind the scenes” showing how the exhibition came together, from the initial idea to the selection of objects, conservation and photography of works, and finally packing, shipping, and installation.

Dana Pilson is the curatorial researcher and collections coordinator at Chesterwood, the historic home, studio, and gardens of American sculptor Daniel Chester French, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she has been working on curatorial and research projects for over ten years. She is a member of the curatorial team for Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French. She and Chesterwood director emerita Donna Hassler contributed an essay to the exhibition catalogue focusing on the studio practices and domestic lives of Saint-Gaudens and French. In addition, she is a cowriter with Metropolitan Museum of Art sculpture curator Thayer Tolles of the comprehensive timeline that charts the many parallels between the lives and careers of the two sculptors.

Opening Program

Frist Art Museum
A Peek Behind the Curtain: The Making of Monuments and Myths
Thursday, February 29, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Auditorium; first come, first seated