Antonio Salemme

Antonio Salemme was an Italian-born American sculptor and painter. His work included sculpted portraits of John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Albert Einstein, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, and classical nudes. He was a true American Classicist. He was what you might call a modern classicist and in the same way you could call him a classic modernist. He was devoted to self expression and the spontaneous. His work is always a balanced expression of the motif, the medium, and the artistic personality. He was not a conceptual artist but rather valued direct experience. The music. In both painting and sculpture he advances post impressionism/modernism into the late 20th C. His statement on the nature of style illuminates the difference between originality and stylization.