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Fred Borcherdt Biography

Fred Borcherdt Biography

View available Fred Borcherdt sculptures

Fred Borcherdt

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" 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" 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" 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