Frederic Littman


Frederic Littman was a Hungarian-American sculptor, whose large sculpted public artwork, frequent collaborations with architect Pietro Belluschi, and four decades of teaching "left a towering artistic legacy in Oregon".

Life

Littman was born in Hidegszamos, Hungary, studied in Budapest and then at the Académie Julian in Paris. By 1931 he'd shown at the Salon d'Automne and entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts; by 1934 he was a full professor and had worked under Charles Malfray at the Académie Ranson, where he met his wife, Austrian-born fellow sculptor Marianne Gold.
As Jews Littman and his wife fled Europe and came to the United States in 1940. After a brief stint at Antioch College in Ohio, they came to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where Littman was artist-in-residence until 1945. After a collegial divorce Marianne Gold Littman continued at Reed until the 1950s. They remained lifelong friends.
Littman became instructor of sculpture at the Museum Art School of the Portland Art Museum, now the independent Pacific Northwest College of Art. He taught there until being named associate professor at Portland State University until his retirement in 1973. Among his students was Manuel Izquierdo.

Work

Littman's work includes: