Fred Borcherdt Biography

View available Fred Borcherdt sculptures

 

Fred Borcherdt

Fred Borcherdt

 

Fred Borcherdt, Relic Marker, Aluminum and Mesquite Wood, 15

Fred Borcherdt, Relic Marker, Aluminum and Mesquite Wood, 15" x 26" x 22"

 

Award-winning sculptor, Fred Borcherdt received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Arizona in 1961 and his master’s at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1963, where he later was an art instructor. He was invited to the National College of Education in Evanston, Illinois as a visiting artist and to the University of Arizona as a visiting lecturer. In 1985, he lectured at the International Conference on Sculpture at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. In 1996, he lectured at the Sculptural Forging Demonstration, 3rd Annual International Blacksmithing Congress in Aachen, Germany.

 

Borcherdt’s awards include the 1964 Edward L. Ryerson Foreign Traveling Fellowship and the 1964 Pauline Palmer Prize for Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1964 Jurors Award Festival of the Arts in Chicago, 1967 First Prize for Sculpture at Old Orchard Art Fair in Skokie, Illinois, 1967 Marina City Purchase Prize and 1969 First Prize at New Horizons in Sculpture in Chicago, 1979 Purchase Prize and the 1985 Award of Merit at the Tucson Museum of Art, 1979 First Prize at Reid Park Zoo Entrance Competition in Tucson, 1986 Visual Improvement Award for Sculpture in Phoenix, and the 1996 Kupfer Award in Germany. His work resides in the collections of the Phoenix Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, Marina City Tower in Chicago, Southbank Business Park in Phoenix, Tampa Museum of Art, National Ornamental Metals Museum in Memphis, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, and the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka to name a few. Borcherdt continues to exhibit and lecture internationally.

 

"The relationship of form to function as exemplified in old worn tools is a characteristic I use to impart a feeling of age as well as utility. Another evolving idea is a feeling of spiritual continuity in making a wood sculpture by starting with a tree, or making a stone sculpture starting a rock strewn riverbed or quarry cliff-face. This feeling carries over to the scrap yards where I find steel that had another life. Most of my works are autobiographical—a means of recording personal feelings and experiences as objects that are intuitively composed.” - Fred Borcherdt

 

Education:

  • School of the Art Institute of Chicago, M.F.A. 1963
  • University of Arizona, B.F.A. 1961

 

Teaching Experience:

  • University of Arizona - Tucson, Arizona - Visiting Lecturer
  • School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, Illinois - Instructor
  • National College of Education - Evanston, Illinois - Visiting Artist

 

Fred Borcherdt, Passage Marker II, Stone and Forged Steel, 23

Fred Borcherdt, Passage Marker II, Stone and Forged Steel, 23" x 103" x13"

 

Exhibitions:

  • 2018 - Tucson Sculpture Festival, Copenhagen, Tucson, AZ
  • 2018 Sustained Visions, Pima Community College Center for the Arts, Tucson, AZ
  • 2017 "25th Anniversary Celebration" Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2013 - Show with painter Mark Bowles, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
  • 2006 - El Cortijo Outdoor Sculpture Show, Invitational Group Show - Tucson, Arizona
  • 2001 - "Ancient Futures - The Art of the Blacksmith" Invitational Show
  • 2001 - Nova Scotia Center for Craft and Design Invitational Exhibit - Halifax, N.S. Canada
  • 1999 - 20 Year Retrospective, Tucson Museum of Art, Stonewall Foundation Series
  • 1998 - "After the Fire" Juried Group Show, Shermer Art Center - Phoenix, Arizona
  • 1997 - Pima Community College Art Gallery, Two Person Show - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1996 & 97 - "1st Annual Washburn University Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition," Topeka, Kansas
  • 1996 - "Contemporary Arizona Sculpture" Tempe Arts Center - Tempe, Arizona
  • 1994 - "ABANA Comes of Age" National Ornamental Metals Museum - Memphis, TN
  • 1991 - "Pedestal 1" Invitational Group Show, Scottsdale Center for the Arts - Scottsdale, AZ
  • 1989 - 4th International Contemporary Art Fair - Los Angeles, California
  • 1987 - Contemporary Metals USA III, Juried Exhibition, Downey Museum of Art - Downey, CA
  • 1986 - Southwest Sculpture Competition, Scottsdale Center for the Arts - Scottsdale, AZ
  • 1986 - Contemporary Art of the Southwest, Tampa Museum of Art - Tampa, Florida
  • 1985 - The Phoenix Biennial, Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, Arizona
  • 1985 - "Outdoor Sculpture" Invitational Show, University of Arizona Union Gallery - Tucson, AZ
  • 1984 - Sculpture Invitational, Tempe Fine Arts Center - Tempe, Arizona
  • 1984 - "Three Alumni" Invitational Show, University of Arizona Union Gallery - Tucson, AZ
  • 1980 & 81 - Arizona Sculpture Invitational, Museum of North Arizona - Flagstaff, Arizona
  • 1979 - Arizona Sculpture I - Flagstaff, Arizona
  • 1971 - Tucson Art Center, Two Person Show - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1970 - Sculpture 70 Invitational, Art Institute of Chicago
  • 1966 - School of the Art Institute of Chicago Faculty Show - Minneapolis, Minnesota
  • 1966 - "Chicago Sculpture ‘66" Juried Exhibition, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1965 - "Phalanx III" Invitational Show, Illinois Institute of Technology
  • 1965 - "Six Sculptors" Invitational Group Show, Bernard Horwich Center - Chicago, Illinois
  • 1965 - Festival of the Arts, Juried Exhibition, University of Chicago
  • 1964 - Chicago and Vicinity Show, Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, Illinois
  • 1964 - "Eye on Chicago" Invitational Show, Illinois Institute of Chicago - Chicago, Illinois
  • **Arizona Biennial, Tucson Museum of Art - 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1997
  • **New Horizons in Sculpture, Chicago, Illinois - 1962, 1983, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969
  • **Texas Sculpture Association, Plaza of the Americas, Dallas, Excellent 1986, 1987, 1988

 

Fred Borcherdt, Desert Anchor, Stone and Forged Steel, 22

Fred Borcherdt, Desert Anchor, Stone and Forged Steel, 22" x 29" x 23"

 

Honors and Awards:

  • 1996 - Kupfer Award, International Teaching Center for Metal Design - Germany
  • 1986 - Visual Improvement Award for Sculpture City of Phoenix - Phoenix, Arizona
  • 1985 - Award of Merit, Arizona Biennial, Tucson Museum of Art - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1985 - Jurors Award, "Southwest Sculpture" Scottsdale Center for the Arts - Scottsdale, AZ
  • 1979 - Arizona Biennial, Purchase Prize, Tucson Museum of Art - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1979 - First Prize, Reid Park Zoo Entrance Competition - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1979 - Purchase Prize, "Alumni II" University of Arizona - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1969 - First Prize, New Horizons in Sculpture - Chicago, Illinois
  • 1967 - Marina City Purchase Prize, New Horizons in Sculpture - Chicago, Illinois
  • 1967 - First Prize for Sculpture, Old Orchard Art Fair - Skokie, Illinois
  • 1964 - Jurors Award, Festival of the Arts, University of Chicago - Chicago, Illinois
  • 1964 - Pauline Palmer Prize for Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago
  • 1964 - Edward L. Ryerson Foreign Traveling Fellowship, Art Institute of Chicago

 

Public and Corporate Collections:

  • Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, Arizona
  • Tucson Museum of Art - Tucson, Arizona
  • Marina City Tower - Chicago, Illinois
  • University of Arizona Museum of Art - Tucson, Arizona
  • University of Arizona Student Union Collection - Tucson, Arizona
  • Southbank Business Park - Phoenix, Arizona
  • New Trier High School - Northbrook, Illinois
  • Tampa Museum of Art - Tampa, Florida
  • National Ornamental Metals Museum - Memphis, Tennessee
  • Tohono Chul Park - Tucson, Arizona
  • Loews Ventana Canyon Resort - Tucson, Arizona
  • Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University - Topeka, Kansas
  • University of Arizona Student Union Collection - Tucson, Arizona
  • Tucson Community Center - Tucson, Arizona

 

Fred Borcherdt, Terminal Marker, Stone and Forged Steel, 42

Fred Borcherdt, Terminal Marker, Stone and Forged Steel, 42" x 51" x 40"

 

Select Publications:

  • Western Art Collector, June 2019, John O’Hern
  • Western Art Collector, April 2013
  • The Contemporary Blacksmith, 2000, Dona Meilach
  • Decorative and Sculptural Iron Work, 1999, 2nd Ed., Dona Meilach
  • Tucson Weekly, "Rocks and Hard Places", April 1-7, 1999
  • Sculpture, Vol. 18, No. 6 July/August 1999, pp. 43-44
  • Sculpture Vol. 15, No. 6, July/August 1996, pp. 12-13
  • Metalsmith, Summer 1988, pp. 43-44
  • New Times, October 29, 1986, p.66
  • Designer West, Vol. 33, No. 1, November 1985, p. 120
  • Creative Carving, Dona Meilach
  • Creative Art with Wood, Dona Meilach
  • Artspace, Summer 1984, p. 29
  • Arttalk, November 1984, p. 21
  • Artspace, Spring 198, p. 52
  • Art News, December 1980, p. 149

 

Lectures:

  • 1997 - "Press Forming Sculpture" Arizona Blacksmith Association of North America, Winterfest Conference - Phoenix, Arizona
  • 1996 - Sculptural Forging Demonstration, 3rd Annual International Blacksmithing Congress - Aachen, Germany
  • 1992 - Slide lecture and panel discussion, Artist Blacksmiths' Association of North America Biannual Conference, California Polytechnic University - San Luis Obispo, California
  • 1990 - Industrial Forging Demonstration Mid America College Art Association 54th Annual Conference - Tucson, Arizona
  • 1985 - Slide Lecture, "The Influence of Place" International Conference on Sculpture, Trinity College - Dublin, Ireland
  • 1986 - Lecture, "Explosive Art" on creating art with explosives, University of Arizona Graduate Sculpture Workshop
  • 1982 - Lecture, "Art the Way It Is" Grand Canyon College - Phoenix, Arizona
  • 1980 & 81 - Workshop, Sculpting in Wood, Northern Arizona University - Flagstaff, Arizona

 

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