New Sculpture Unveiled at Cyrus Dallin Art Museum

The Cyrus Dallin Art Museum unveiled a new sculpture for its collection at a members’ reception on Thursday, June 27.

The sculpture is a bust of Cyrus E. Dallin (1861-1944) as a young man (about age 22). It was created at Town Hall by Daniel Fairbanks in January 2012 during a lecture about Dallin’s sculptural legacy by American decorative arts curator Jonathan Leo Fairbanks, who is currently the director of the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton.

More on Daniel Fairbanks and the Sculpture from the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum

Dr. Daniel J. Fairbanks is a scientist, artist, author, and college professor. He is the Associate Dean of Science and Health and Professor of Biology at Utah Valley University. His diverse talents in art and science merge through artistic human anatomy and scientific illustration. He is a certified forensic sculptor and is currently working on anthropological facial reconstructions of skulls from Moche excavations in Peru with anthropologist Haagen Klaus. Dr. Fairbanks uses his skills as an artist to promote art and science awareness and education through sculpture demonstration lectures. Dr. Fairbanks is the grandson of the late sculptor, Avard T. Fairbanks (1897-1987) and the great grandson of the painter, John B. Fairbanks (1855-1940), who was acquainted with fellow Utah born Cyrus Dallin and was hosted at Dallin’s Paris home upon arrival in the city in 1890.

After the unveiling of the bust titled, Young Cyrus Dallin, Dr. Fairbanks remarked on the photograph of Dallin at the age of about 22, from which he modeled the sculpture. The photograph was taken at about the same time that Dallin won the Boston design competition for a monument of Paul Revere. Dr. Fairbanks noted that Dallin had completed a self portrait bust toward the latter part of his career in 1927 and said he wanted to depict Dallin as a young man so the two portraits would bookend the life and career of the famous sculptor. The Paul Revere Monument itself had bookended Dallin’s career; a youthful Dallin won the competition for monument in 1882 at the age of 21 but it took seven different designs and 58 years before it was finally installed in bronze in Boston’s North End.

Sculptor Robert Shure of Skylight Studios in Woburn, Mass. made a mold of Dr. Fairbanks’ original clay model and then cast it in plaster for the Museum’s collection. The bust is installed in the newly redesigned front hall of the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum, where the piece will welcome visitors as they enter the building. The display case was custom built by designer and artist David Bubier of Melrose, Mass.

The  audience was treated to a Fritz Kreisler composition performed by Dr. Donna Fairbanks, a concert and recording violinist and the Chair of the Department of Music at Utah Valley University. Dr. Donna Fairbanks was in Boston to attend professional meetings at the Berkeley School of Music.