(Washington, D. C., born 1943)

Study for Justice, 1994-95, central figure for a monumental sundial, United States Courthouse, Shreveport, Louisiana, unsigned, patinated bronze with green marble plinth, 35 x 41 x 10 in.

Raymond Kaskey is an American architect and sculptor most well-known for his works of monumental and memorial sculpture. He studied architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University, and in 1983 established Kaskey Studio. Throughout his career as an artist, Kaskey has received numerous commissions to create public art for civic buildings and memorials across the country, including the architectural sculptures for the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. and Portlandia for the Portland Public Services Building in Portland, Oregon.

Presented here is a preliminary study for Kaskey's Justice, which stands in the front plaza before the Shreveport Federal Court House in Shreveport, Louisiana. Kaskey eventually combined several classical elements in rendering his representation of Justice as a winged, garbed, and hooded female figure, from her blindfold and scales indicative of impartiality, her sword representative of protection, to the sundial atop which she stands, reminding the viewer that justice requires both expedition and deliberation. The finished monument received the Shreveport Beautification Foundation Honor Award following its installation at the Court House. This study was executed as a nude and without many of the details later added to the finished piece. It reveals an incredibly moving underlying power.

Provenance: The Studio Collection of Ray Kaskey, Brentwood, Maryland

black patina, good condition