Milton Elting Hebald (May 24, 1917 – January 5, 2015) was asculptor who specialized infigurativebronze works. Twenty-three of his works are displayed in public inNew York City, including the statues ofRomeo and Juliet andThe Tempest in front of theDelacorte Theatre inCentral Park.[1] His major work is a 220-foot (67 m), 12-piece "Zodiac Screen", then the largest sculpture in the world, commissioned byPan-American Airlines for itsterminal atJohn F. Kennedy International Airport, and now owned and stored by thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey.[1]
Hebald was born in New York City. He studied at several New York art schools, starting at the age of ten, including theArt Students League of New York, theNational Academy of Design and theBeaux-Arts Institute of Design.[2] InNew York City he taught at the Art Students League,The Cooper Union,American Artists School and also privately. He also taught at the Brooklyn Museum of Art,Skowhegan School of Art, in Maine, and at theUniversity of Minnesota. He has been a guest lecturer and teacher at many other academic institutions.
Hebald had his first one-man show at the age of 20, in New York City. He is currently exclusively represented by the Pushkin Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hebald was awarded thePrix de Rome Fellowship to theAmerican Academy in Rome in 1955, 1956, and 1957. He stayed inItaly, living inRome, with his wife, painter,Cecille Rosner Hebald, until 1970 when they moved toBracciano, 25 miles outside Rome. In 2004, six years after his wife's death, he returned to the United States. Hebald lived inLos Angeles at the time of his death.[2] near tohis daughter, Margo Hebald (akaMargo Hebald-Heymann), Architect, granddaughter Lara Hebald Embry and great-granddaughter Cecille Tuccillo all of whom live in California.
Hebald created a series of pieces in 1960 featuring representations of theZodiac on the exterior of thePan American World AirwaysWorldport atJohn F. Kennedy International Airport inNew York City. A 200-foot-long (61 m) and 24-foot-high (7.3 m) windscreen in front of the terminal's entrance was adorned withbas relief representations of the 12 signs of the zodiac, visible from both outside and inside the terminal building.[3] When it was created, it was the largest such work in the world.[4] As part of renovations, thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey removed the sculptures, and have recently been moved to Building 111 on airport.[5]Hebald has created a pair of statues in front ofCentral Park'sDelacorte Theatre. The bronze unveiled in 1966 featuresProspero, the protagonist ofWilliam Shakespeare's playThe Tempest. The piece was a gift ofGeorge T. Delacorte Jr., who also donated the Delacorte Theatre.[6] A 14-foot (4.3 m) bronze ofProspero andMiranda by Hebald was dedicated in Central Park in honor ofJoseph Papp, founder of theNew York Shakespeare Festival.[7] Hebald's sculpture ofRomeo and Juliet was dedicated outside the Delacorte Theater in 1977.[8]
Hebald created a bust of operatic tenorRichard Tucker for Richard Tucker Park, located in front of Lincoln Center, at the corner ofBroadway andColumbus Avenue at66th Street. Dedicated on April 20, 1980, the statue consists of a larger-than-life size bronze portrait on a 6-foot-high (1.8 m)granite pedestal.[9][10] The original 1978 proposal for a seven-foot statue of Tucker, depicted in the role of Des Grieux in the operaManon Lescaut byGiacomo Puccini, had been opposed by a member ofManhattan Community Board 7, who felt that the piece should have been placed in theMetropolitan Opera Hall of Fame, and not on public property.[11]
InZurich, Switzerland, Hebald was commissioned to do a life sized, full figure portrait ofJames Joyce, for Joyce's tomb. He also made a bust of British novelistAnthony Burgess, to whom he once also sold a house near Rome. Burgess was quoted in 1971 as saying Hebald was "without doubt the most important living figure sculptor."[1] InLos Angeles, two of his bronze works were commissioned for the Adam's sculpture garden surrounding the Stuart Ketchum YMCA, the "Olympiad" in tribute to the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles, and "Handstand", depicting an acrobatic young boy which echos the "Y" logo.[1]
After living near his granddaughter and great-granddaughter inLos Angeles, and continuing to sculpt in Terra Cotta and draw, Milton Hebald died on January 5, 2015, at the age of 97, inWest Hollywood, California. He is survived by his grandchildren, Lara Hebald Embry, and Sergei Hebald Heymann, and his great-grandchild, Cecille Tuccillo.[12]
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