UNION ARTIST STUDIES WITH ITALIAN MASTER SCULPTOR
Jackson, Tenn. — 51ÉçÇø's Lee Benson, assistant professor of art, was hand-picked by Italian master sculptor Bruno Lucchesi to attend the Scottsdale Artist School in Scottsdale, Ariz. Jan. 27-31.
Benson attended one of only four workshops that are conducted each year in the United States by this Italian artist. Lucchesi, born in 1926 in Luca, Italy, "has a dazzling command of his medium in the tradition of the master sculptors of the Renaissance," Benson said.
Lucchesi's work is exhibited in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Dallas Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and in several private collections.
Benson, who joined Union's faculty in 1996, recently had a sculpture dedicated by the Area Council for the Arts in Rome, Ga. The 19 foot by 40 foot wide bisque archway that Benson created is the first piece of clay sculpture to adorn a public right-of-way in Floyd County, Ga.