Carl Romanelli

Last updated

Carl Romanelli is an American sculptor noted for his many outdoor sculptures of famous people. Romanelli was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is a seventh-generation sculptor, and his family is so well known in Italy that a museum there is dedicated to his family's sculptural works.

Romanelli's sculpture of Elvis Presley, on display at the Las Vegas Hilton in 2009 Elvis Presley statue at Las Vegas Hilton.jpg
Romanelli's sculpture of Elvis Presley, on display at the Las Vegas Hilton in 2009

Romanelli designed artware in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. For a time, he created artwork for the Works Project Administration. Lamps, plates and pottery designed by him were issued by Maddux of California, Incolay Studios Metroluxas well as Metlox Pottery of California in Manhattan Beach. At Metlox, he designed (holds Patent) various glassware and pottery. In the 1960s and 1970s, he turned toward life-size statues of people, many of them designed to be displayed outdoors. Among his more notable public works are a statue of St. Michael outside St. Michael's Church in Los Angeles; a statue of St. Vincent de Paul in Los Angeles; and a modern art piece outside Temple Shaarei Tikvah in Arcadia, California. He also designed (but did not execute) the Joseph Scott statue outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse building of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

His most famous work is a likeness of Elvis Presley outside the Las Vegas Hilton hotel. The statue was dedicated on September 8, 1978, and stood outside the property in a glass case for 28 years. In 2005, the statue was placed in storage while the facility underwent renovation. It was placed back on public display in 2006 in a courtyard inside the hotel. At one point, the statue was insured for a sizeable $1.5 million. Romanelli also was the sculptor for the Al Jolson Memorial Shrine at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Related Research Articles

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection is built around the personal collection of Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914), the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries.

Antonin Mercié French sculptor and painter

Marius Jean Antonin Mercié, was a French sculptor and painter.

Albert Stewart American artist

Albert Stewart was an American sculptor.

Jonathan Borofsky American sculptor and printmaker

Jonathan Borofsky is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine.

François Duquesnoy Belgian sculptor

François Duquesnoy or Frans Duquesnoy was a Flemish Baroque sculptor in Rome. His more idealized representations are often contrasted with the emotional character of Bernini's works, while his style shows greater affinity to Algardi's sculptures.

Haig Patigian American artist

Haig Patigian, was an Armenian-American sculptor

Metlox Pottery

Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California. The pottery factory closed in 1989.

Pierre Le Gros the Younger sculptor from France

Pierre Le Gros was a French sculptor, active almost exclusively in Baroque Rome. Nowadays, his name is commonly written Legros, while he himself always signed as Le Gros; he is frequently referred to either as 'the Younger' or 'Pierre II' to distinguish him from his father, Pierre Le Gros the Elder, who was also a sculptor. The "ardent drama" of his work and its Italian location make him more an Italian, than a French, sculptor. Despite being virtually unknown to the general public today, he was the pre-eminent sculptor in Rome for nearly two decades, until he was finally superseded at the end of his life by the more classicizing Camillo Rusconi.

Joseph Scott (attorney) Californian attorney and community leader

Joseph Scott was a prominent British-born attorney and community leader in Los Angeles, California. His service to the community was so varied and important that he earned the nickname "Mr. Los Angeles."

Robert Russin American artist

Robert Isaiah Russin was an American sculptor, artist and University of Wyoming professor. He was best known for a number of public sculptures throughout the United States, including the "Spirit of Life" fountain sculpture located at the City of Hope National Medical Center in California and a giant bust of Abraham Lincoln, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument, located on I-80 in Wyoming.

Carlo Alfred Romanelli (1872–1947) was an Italian sculptor, born in Florence, Italy August 24, 1872 and died August 9, 1947. He came to the United States in 1902, settling in Los Angeles, California. He moved to Detroit, Michigan in the early 1920s. He was the son of Italian sculptor Raffaello Romanelli (1856–1928) who created the 1927 bust of Dante Alighieri on Belle Isle Park in Detroit. Among Carlo Romanelli's Detroit works are the bronze tablet of Cadillac's landing, now at the Cadillac Center People Mover Station downtown, and La Pieta at the entrance of Mt. Elliott Cemetery. Carlo attended the Royal Academy of Art in Italy and studied with his father and sculptor Augusto Rivalta; Rivalta's Detroit statue of Christopher Columbus (1910) is now at Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street.

Milton Elting Hebald was a sculptor who specialized in figurative bronze works. Twenty-three of his works are displayed in public in New York City, including the statues of Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest in front of the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. His major work is a 220-foot (67 m), 12-piece "Zodiac Screen", then the largest sculpture in the world, commissioned by Pan-American Airlines for its terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and now owned and stored by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Burt Johnson American sculptor

Burt William Johnson was an American sculptor.

Bauer Pottery

J.A. Bauer Pottery is an American pottery that was founded in Paducah, Kentucky and operated for most of its life in Los Angeles, California.

Pacific Clay

Pacific Clay Products, founded 1892, was created by the merger of several Southern California potteries. The company began producing utilitarian pottery in the 1920s, and introduced solid color earthenware dinnerware in 1932. The primary site for the production of ceramic tableware, kitchenware, and art ware was based in the company's Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles plant at 306 West Avenue 26. Pacific Clay ceased production of ceramic dinnerware and art ware in 1942. After 1942, Pacific Clay produced sewer tile and brick. The company ceased production of sewer tile in 1997. The company continues to produce brick products in Lake Elsinore, California. The company has been owned by David H. Murdock since 1973.

Vernon Kilns

Vernon Kilns was an American ceramic company in Vernon, California. In July 1931, Faye G. Bennison purchased the former Poxon China pottery renaming the company Vernon Kilns. Poxon China was located at 2300 East 52nd Street. Vernon produced ceramic tableware, art ware, giftware, and figurines. The company closed its doors in 1958.

California pottery

California pottery includes industrial, commercial, and decorative pottery produced in the Northern California and Southern California regions of the U.S. state of California. Production includes brick, sewer pipe, architectural terra cotta, tile, garden ware, tableware, kitchenware, art ware, figurines, giftware, and ceramics for industrial use. Ceramics include terra cotta, earthenware, porcelain, and stoneware products.

California Clay Movement

The California Clay Movement was a school of ceramic art that emerged in California in the 1950s. The movement was part of the larger transition in crafts from "designer-craftsman" to "artist-craftsman". The editor of Craft Horizons, New York-based Rose Slivka, became an enthusiastic advocate of the movement.

Harrison McIntosh American artist

Harrison Edward McIntosh was an American ceramic artist. He was an exponent of the Mid-century Modern style of ceramics, featuring simple symmetrical forms. His work has been exhibited in venues in the United States including the Smithsonian and internationally including at the Louvre in France.

Pasquale Romanelli was an Italian sculptor, apprentice of Lorenzo Bartolini.

References