'Fallen Male Nude' by Marguerite Louis Blasingame

Marguerite Louis Blasingame Charles (1906–1947) was an American sculptor and painter. Born Marguerite Louis in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...

in 1906, she graduated from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

and went on to earn an M.A. in fine art from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

in 1928. The artist then returned to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, where she became an established sculptor of figural works, many of them

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s in wood and stone. Her depictions were usually sinuous in contour with simplified anatomy. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, Blasingame was a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

artist and filled many commissions for architectural panels. Marguerite Blasingame founded the Hawaiian Mural Arts Guild in 1934, along with Isami Doi,

Madge Tennent Madge Tennent (June 22, 1889 – February 5, 1972) was a naturalized American artist, born in England, raised in South Africa, and trained in France. She ranks among the most accomplished and globally renowned artists ever to have lived and wor ...

, and others. She authored ''A Course in Art Appreciation for the Adult Layman'', which was published by Stanford University Press. Blasingame died in 1947 while traveling in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. She was survived by her second husband, Forrest Charles, and sons Pierre F. Charles and William Blasingame. On Saturday 15 March 1947, fellow island artist

published the following tribute to Blasingame in ''The Honolulu Advertiser'':

To her many artist friends she represented a youthful and indomitable vitality in art, which was supported by a capacity for grueling hard work in her chosen field of true fresco and sculptured bas-relief in Hawaiian wood and stone. She was, by almost any way of thinking, too young to die. But the strangely wonderful thing is this, that she has in her sadly short young life, left more important works of art which have been placed where everybody may enjoy them, than any other island artist.

One of her wooden sculptures is installed in the John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

. She made four wood carvings flanking the lectern and pulpit of Church of the Crossroads in 1935, symbolizing four great religious faiths: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Other sculptures in public places includes an untitled 1935 marble sculpture in Ala Moana Park,

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

and ''Hawaiian Decagonal Fountain'' (1934–1935) at Kawananakoa School,

.Radford, Georgia and Warren Radford, "Sculpture in the Sun, Hawaii's Art for Open Spaces", University of Hawaii Press, 1978, pp. 91-92.

References

* Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, p. 213. * Hemphill, Betty, "The Crossroads Witness", Church of the Crossroads, Honolulu, HI, 1988. * Papanikolas, Theresa and DeSoto Brown, ''Art Deco Hawai'i'', Honolulu, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2014, , pp. 60–64. * Radford, Georgia and Warren Radford, "Sculpture in the Sun, Hawaii's Art for Open Spaces", University of Hawaii Press, 1978, pp. 91–92 * Sandulli, Justin M., ''Troubled Paradise: Madge Tennent at a Hawaiian Crossroads'', Durham, NC: Duke University, 2016

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blasingame, Marguerite American women sculptors 1906 births 1947 deaths Works Progress Administration workers Sculptors from Hawaii 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists Painters from Hawaii Symbolist artists Women surrealist artists American surrealist artists