Outdoor Sculpture Collection

In response to Hofstra University’s 2007 international artistic competition to create a public artwork to celebrate the history, achievement, and aspirations of people of color, Vinnie Bagwell chose to immortalize the great American orator and emancipator Frederick Douglass.  Looking at the intense facial expressions of Douglass, it is clear that Bagwell studied 19th century photographic portraits of him for her sculpture.  Douglass was outspoken about his preference of photography over painting, engraving and sculpture for portraying the “true likeness” of black people. On the back of the chair in which Douglass is seated, you see an outline of the kneeling slave cameo carved into the chair, while Douglas gestures with one arm as if to welcome all who pass his way to a place where freedom of expression and ideas is paramount.

The Artist’s Statement:

For anything worth having, one must pay "the price," and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice – no paper currency, no promissory notes, but the gold of real service.  Life obliges me to do something meaningful, so I make art to honor cultural legacies.  My pursuit of artistic excellence via public art is grounded in my desire to use sculpture as a visual language that is resonant and has the power to reach out, strike the heart, and enrich the lives of others.

Anchored in realism, my style is defined by portraiture which provides insight into the strength of human character and shows a precise articulation of the human spirit.  Rendered with the most revealing sensitivity, my subjects are meant to be engaged to invite memories of experiences and feelings.  My three-dimensional, lifelike sculpture is often enhanced with a montage of rich details in low, bas-relief-sculpture techniques, text and Braille to add visual intrigue, tell a story, and give a sense of place.       

Every character I create is designed and principled to inform viewers that artistry is a powerful, useful tool of social transformation; one capable of condensing our thoughts, distilling our minds, and renewing our hopes and aspirations.  Artists are the stewards of civilization, and my gift to the future is the legacy of my ancestors.  Thus, when I contemplated my response to Hofstra University's Call to Artists to create a public artwork to celebrate "the history, achievement, and aspirations of people of color," I decided that if I had to choose one person in history to speak for me with the requisite passion and eloquence, it would be Frederick Douglass.

The design concept I envisioned is a means by which to sharpen memories: Viewers are reminded of some of the most meaningful and rewarding moments in America’s growth toward inclusion and equality for African Americans.  It enables students, faculty and visitors at a world-class university to pause and reflect upon the quantum leaps in social, educational and economic progress that generations born after slavery have made as beneficiaries of Frederick Douglass and others who struggled, fought and died to make freedom and liberty a reality in America.  It is a monument to how much further we need to go to erase racism and discrimination from our society.

-Vinnie Bagwell, November 2012