Oscars Statues Made 40 Minutes Away from Poughkeepsie
This is that time of the year when celebrities crowd the red carpet, enticing magazine photographers with their dazzling Hollywood smiles and extravagant garments. On this day, the whole country is waiting with bated breath for the big reveal, guessing the names of the next honorees to receive fancy Oscars statuettes.
For 92 years, in American cultural consciousness, the Academy Awards ceremony nearly reached the status of a national holiday. This year’s best picture went to a South-Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, the first foreign-language film to attain the pedestal and win in two other nominations, receiving three coveted Oscars in total.
While Marist students are far away from sunny Hollywood, they are only 40 minutes away from a small upstate New York town Rock Tavern, where the Oscar statuettes are conceived in Polich Tallix fine art foundry.
The fine art foundry Polich Tallix, owned by Dick Polich, has been working on famous art casting projects since 1968. Dick Polich’s mission is to make art for artists. Located in Rock Tavern, NY, Polich Tallix warehouse is the size of a football field, completing large scale sculptural projects. The paragon of technological advancements in the metallurgic industry, the foundry is one of the best internationally recognized world leaders in fine art casting.
For half a decade, Polich Tallix has been a pioneer in unleashing artists’ creativity by providing them with the needed tools to convert their ideas into metal. The clientele includes the celebrated artists, like Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, and Frank Stella among many others. Moreover, Polich Tallix works on the production of public monuments, fine art, and special projects, like Oscar statuettes.
In 2016, the Academy requested Polich Tallix to restore George Stanley’s original 1928 Oscar statuette art-deco look with the addition of contemporary elements. By using 3-D modeling techniques, two scans of Oscar’s primary and modern versions were combined to create a fusion between the revival of Stanley's original ideas and contemporary design.
Although sculpted by George Stanley, the statuette was designed by the MGM artist Cedric Gibbons. The sculpture represents a golden knight with a sword standing on a film reel with five spokes illustrating the foundational branches of the Academy: actors, writers, directors, producers, and technicians.
The name “Oscar” originated from a comment made by Margaret Herrick, a librarian at a time who eventually became an executive director. The story goes, when she looked at the statuette for the first time, it reminded her of her uncle Oscar.
Although we do not know who Herrick's uncle was, she managed to immortalize his name in the disguise of the most recognizable cinematic award in history.
So how are the famous statuettes made? Polich Tallix went through a gradual, multi-step process of casting that gave Oscar’s final lucid appearance. The manufacturing period for 50 statuettes is approximately three months. The new design, printed in the pilot 3-D wax version, then was made into a mold used to make wax form of each statue.
The prepared waxes are dipped in a ceramic shell slurry for coating and then fired in the oven. After firing in a kiln, bronze is poured into the ceramic shells to cool overnight to wait for the bronze casting to break from the ceramic shells. The last few steps require sanding of bronze casts for shimmer mirror polish and coating the surface with 24k gold.
Finally, the finishing touch is to attach an engraved bronze plaque with each winner’s name and category to the base of the figurine.
The fine art foundry exemplifies a perfect union between technological and artistic excellence, encouraging implementation of creative ideas and honor of long-lasting traditions.
Polich Tallix is a unique organization that contributes to the flourishing cultural environment of the Hudson Valley, making its residents proud to have such first-class facility close to home.
Source: Alan Light via Creative Commons