Dimitri Hadzi (March 21, 1921 – April 16, 2006) was an American abstract sculptor who lived and worked in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

, and also taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

for over a decade.

Life

Hadzi was born to

Greek-American Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greeks, Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the hi ...

immigrant parents in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

on March 21, 1921. As a child, he attended a Greek after-school program, where he learned language, mythology, history, and theater. He also won a prize for drawing. After graduating from

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...

, he worked as a chemist, while continuing his studies in chemistry by night. In 1942, he signed up for the Army Air Force, serving in the South Pacific region while continuing to draw in his spare time. After his service, he returned to New York to study painting and sculpture at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

. Hadzi taught studio arts at

, from 1975 to 1989.

Personal life

Hadzi married Martha Leeb, but later divorced. In June 1985, he married Cynthia von Thuna. He died in 2006 and was interred at

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmi ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Works

*''Centaur'' (1954), in the garden of Prospect House in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

* '' Elmo-MIT'', 1960s *''K. 458 The Hunt'' (1966),

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, designe ...

, New York City, refers to Mozart's String Quartet in B flat, K. 458 *'' River Legend'' (1976), Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building,

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

*''

Thermopylae Thermopylae (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: (''Thermopylai'') , Demotic Greek (Greek): , (''Thermopyles'') ; "hot gates") is a place in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur ...

'' (1960s), John F. Kennedy Federal Building, Boston *''

Propylaea In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaea, propylea or propylaia (; Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway. They are seen as a partition, specifically for separating the secular and religious pieces of a city. The prototypical Gr ...

'' (1982), a sculptural fountain in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and accordin ...

*''Omphalos'' (1985), formerly at Harvard Square MBTA station through the

Arts on the Line Arts on the Line was a program devised to bring art into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) subway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arts on the Line was the first program of its kind in the United States and became th ...

program, but was to be repaired and relocated to

Rockport, Massachusetts Rockport is a seaside town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,992 in 2020. Rockport is located approximately northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula. Rockport borders Gloucester to its west, and ...

*''Helmet V'', (1959-1961)

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desi ...

, Washington DC *''Red Mountains'' (1991), Hugo L. Black United States Courthouse,

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. The sculpture, installed in 1991, was removed in 2012 for renovations to the building. A provision of the 2014 Financial Appropriations Act barred the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...

from replacing it for fear that it could be used to shield an attacker. * ''Elmo V'' (1961), The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, NY

Awards

* 1957

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

* 1962

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

* 1974

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

* 1990

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

, Associate member * 1994 National Academy of Design, full Academician

Removal of artworks

Some of Hadzi's public artworks have been removed since his death, as noted above. In addition to the named works, a high sculptural fountain designed by him was completely demolished and removed circa 2014, despite protests by his widow and other commentators. The artwork was the centerpiece of Boston's

Copley Place Copley Place is an enclosed shopping mall within the mixed-use Copley Square in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It features direct indoor connections to several nearby destinations including four office towers, and the Bosto ...

indoor shopping mall, and was composed of multiple abstract

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

and

travertine marble Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...

shapes, with a

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

cascading down it into a shallow pool at the bottom, surrounded by marble benches. , there was scant remaining evidence the fountain had ever existed, and the ownership, location, and status of its components were unknown to the general public.

References

External links

Oral history interview with Dimitri Hadzi, 1981 Jan. 2-1990 Mar. 9
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hadzi, Dimitri 1921 births 2006 deaths Harvard University faculty Artists from New York City Sculptors from Massachusetts Cooper Union alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II American people of Greek descent 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century male artists American male sculptors Sculptors from New York (state) Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters