June 15 - Happy Birthday, Malvina Hoffman

Posted on June 15, 2021

Key points

This is an update of my post published on June 15, 2010:

Born in New York City on this day in 1887, Malvina Hoffman was a sculptor. She is best known for a group of more than 100 life-size bronze statues of culturally diverse people. It was a commission for the Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, destined for the “Hall of Man.”

Hoffman was brought up in an artistic family, with pianist parents and lots of varied musicians and artists invited to their home on a regular basis. She was homeschooled by her mother until age 10. When she completed her first sculpture, a clay bust of her father, he said to her, “My child, I am afraid you are going to be an artist.” The sculptor responsible for Mt. Rushmore (Gutzon Borglum) also praised the sculpture, so even though Hoffman was also a talented singer and sketch artist, she decided to pursue sculpting.

Hoffman trained under Borglum and other sculptors, including French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who is considered the founder of modern sculpture.

The bronze statues Hoffman created for the Field Museum were first displayed in 1933, and they remained on display until Hoffman’s death in 1966. Hoffman wrote that she intended to show the individuality and dignity of each of her subjects.

However, the exhibit of her pieces, taken as a whole, tended to give a message that is now out of date: that racial differences are physical and that race categories are distinct. We now consider race to be a social construct that relates to geography, ethnic and cultural groups, ancestry and populations, and unfortunately to patterns of long-standing systemic segregation and discrimination.

A new exhibit of Hoffman’s statues feature individuals’ names and specific group names, whenever possible, and urge viewers to look for nuance and beauty in each sculpture.