Contemporary Art

ED HAMILTON
(American, born 1947)

Untitled (Old Soldier), 1996/97
Clay, steel, Styrofoam, wood, cotton, paint
Collection of the Speed Art Museum, Gift of the artist 2000.18

In 1993 Ed Hamilton was commissioned to design the African-American Civil War Memorial, The Spirit of Freedom. Located on a plaza at 10th and U streets in Washington, D.C., and measuring over 9 feet tall, this bronze sculpture was dedicated on 18 July 1998.

The Spirit of Freedom commemorates the 209,145 African-Americans who fought for their freedom during the Civil War and is dedicated to Private Gordon, a brutally abused slave who escaped across Union lines and presented himself for induction into the army. The outer side of the monument depicts three infantrymen with rifles and a sailor holding a ship’s wheel, all modeled in high relief. The inner side represents a poignant farewell scene between a soldier, his wife, and family.

This bust of an older soldier is an original clay head from which the bronze figure in The Sprit of Freedom was cast. Hamilton preserved the figure as a unique, expressive work its own right.