Jacques Schnier, Relief Panels for Elevator Doors, Helm Building, Fresno: Man Drilling for Oil, Man with Wine Kegs, Man with Bales, Corral, Woman with Grapes, Pigs and Sheep, 1936

Jacques Schnier

Relief Panels for Elevator Doors, Helm Building, Fresno: Man Drilling for Oil, Man with Wine Kegs, Man with Bales, Corral, Woman with Grapes, Pigs and Sheep, 1936

Bronze, in six panels

Each: 10½ x 7½ inches (26.7 x 19.1 cm)

(i) Inscribed and dated at lower center: SCHNIER 36; inscribed and dated on verso: Jacques Schnier 1936
(ii) Inscribed at lower center: SCHNIER; inscribed and dated on verso: Jacques Schnier 1936
(iii) Inscribed at lower center: SCHNIER; inscribed and dated on verso: Jacques Schnier 1936
(iv) Inscribed at lower center: SCHNIER
(v) Inscribed and dated at lower left: SCHNIER '36; inscribed and dated on verso: Jacques Schnier 1936
(vi) Inscribed at lower center: SCHNIER; inscribed and dated on verso: Jacques Schnier 1936

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Conceived in gilded terracotta and cast in bronze in 1936. Jacques Schnier was a prominent sculptor from the Bay Area, California, and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley,...

Conceived in gilded terracotta and cast in bronze in 1936.

Jacques Schnier was a prominent sculptor from the Bay Area, California, and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1936 to 1966. Born in Romania, he arrived in San Francisco at the turn of the century and earned a civil engineering degree from Stanford in 1920. However, in 1927, he transitioned to focusing on his work as a sculptor. Notably, his work was included in the 1939–40 Golden Gate International Exposition. His body of work can be divided into two distinct periods: before World War II, Schnier was influenced by Art Deco design and explored links between the creative process, psychoanalysis, and symbolism. After the war, he shifted towards abstraction, experimenting with industrial media and man-made materials, particularly transparent ones.

The present set of bronze elevator panels belong to the first phase of Schnier's career and were commissioned in 1936 for The Helm Building in Fresno, California. Another example of the set of panels remains in the Helm Building today. Originally known as the Griffith-McKenzie Building and constructed in 1914, the building underwent a $100,000 modernization project that included the installation of new air conditioning and an updated elevator system with bronze-front cabs. Schnier’s elevator door panels feature motifs illustrating the agricultural and industrial activities of the San Joaquin Valley.

Provenance

The artist; to
Private collection, circa 1986; to
Private collection, Boston, 1986-2002; to
[Conner - Rosenkranz, New York, 2002]; to
[Guggenheim, Asher Associates, Inc., 2005]; to
The present owner, 2005

Literature

Ilene S. Fort, Jacques Schnier, Art Deco and Beyond: 60 Years of Sculpture, Mills College Art Museum: Oakland, 1998, p. 26, (possibly) another set of five panels mentioned

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Artworks

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