Academy Award of Merit (Oscar)
ClassificationsSculpture
Artist
George Stanley
(American, 1903 - 1970)
Date1929
Made AtLos Angeles, California, United States, North America
MediumBronze
Dimensions11 3/4 × 5 1/4 in. (29.8 × 13.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Estate of Paula Nelli
Object number76.30.15
DescriptionThe concept for “Oscar,” the colloquial name for the Academy Award of Merit, originated shortly after the creation of the then brand-new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. At one of their first banquets, several Hollywood executives were brainstorming ways to encourage the creation of particularly excellent pieces of cinema and settled on an award that would carry prestige. The Art Director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Cedric Gibbons, first drew the design as an Art Deco rendering of a mostly bare knight. To translate the drawing into three dimensions, the Academy reached out to George Stanley, a Los Angeles area sculptor who had just graduated from the Otis Art Institute the year prior and had a promising career ahead of him. However, the production of the awards does not end there. With the model finished, it was Guido Nelli who cast multiple copies of the awards in bronze.Guido Nelli was born to an Italian sculptor in 1881. As a young man he himself trained in sculpture under Ernesto Biondi, one of the foremost Italian sculptors of the late 19th century. Like many others seeking to emigrate from Italy at the time, Nelli moved to Petrograd (Leningrad) to work as a sculptor and monument designer for the imperial family. He enjoyed a stable job there for 15 years until the Revolution of 1917 forced him to flee for his life. He was fortunate to make his way back to Italy and secure passage to the United States. In New York he worked for a while at the only bronze foundry for art in the United States. In 1924 he decided to set out on his own once more and journeyed west to Los Angeles. There he founded the California Art Bronze Foundry in 1927, the first bronze foundry for sculptures in the West. Major sculptors of the 1920s and 1930s like Charles M. Russell and Hughlette Wheeler brought their works to Nelli to be cast. When it came time for Stanley to reproduce his award, his only option was to work with Nelli.
This particular Oscar statuette is interesting for several reasons. The first of these is that it is the only Oscar that Guido Nelli decided to keep for his personal collection. It is signed and dated by the artist, “George Stanley, 1929,” indicating that at the very latest it would have been made following 1st Academy Awards in that same year. Secondly, the statuette was never gilded, as was the case with even the first Academy Awards. The rare combination of the signature and the lack of gold indicates that this was neither a prototype, nor was it ever intended for the stage. Often when creating multiples of an artwork, a technician like Nelli received at least one signed, completed work in addition to their payment. Many times they will also keep the bon à tirer ("good for printing" in French) against which all copies are compared. Despite the likeliness that this is one or the other we cannot confirm it without more documentation. Either way this is evidently one of the earliest Academy Awards, potentially even the first ever cast.
On View
Not on view
April 1964
