about
Richard minns: the artist and the man
“Richard Minns was born to be a sculptor. He has created his own sculptural language: realistic and physical, with anatomical perfection, highly charged with emotion and movement, conveying sexuality in the way of Michelangelo, Rodin and Bourdelle.”
Leon Bronstein
The Artist:
Art came easily and quickly to Richard. He could always draw and at one time he considered becoming a political cartoonist, but after training in painting and sculpture at the Hampstead Academy in London and then at Avni Art Institute in Israel, he knew that sculpture was his calling. He enrolled in the Basis School of Sculpture in Israel, completed the 5 year course in two years, and opened his own studio in Hadassah Neurim, overlooking the beautiful water of the Mediterranean Ocean.
Like the Old Masters, Richard has a deep interest in Classical and Biblical Mythology. Like the Old Masters, Richard has made a life study of human anatomy. Combining these interests with his considerable artistic talents, plus his personal background in bodybuilding and athletic achievement, Richard has made a unique mark in sculpture of the 21st century.
The Man:
Richard Minns lives life to the full. Now in his 91st year, he is still going strong.
The son of an Irish father and Jewish mother, Richard was born on a Ranch in Texas in 1929 and has lived all over the world in a larger-than-life continuous adventure, spanning 14 different successful careers which have been the subject of newspapers, magazines, books, movies, and television shows.
A former boxing champion and rodeo competitor, Richard first trained to be a doctor; then became a journalism professor; then a professional writer; then founder and operator of one of America’s largest advertising - marketing - public relations agencies; then founder and operator of one of the world’s largest network of health and fitness spas.
And a world-class athlete still holding over 12 world’s records in endurance sports.
For two decades, Richard promoted his growing network of health spas by challenging nature to set a new physical endurance World’s Record on each of his birthdays. One sports writer called Richard a “World Champion Nut”, and the term stuck. His feats include:
- Age 35, MEXICO. The first non-Mexican to successfully high dive from the 170 foot high famed La Quebrada cliffs of Acapulco.
- Age 45, USA. Two records: The first person to waterski non-stop for 11 hours and the only person to successfully circle the perimeter of the freezing waters of Lake Tahoe 5 times on a single slalom ski.
- Age 48, ANTIGUA, West Indies. Killed two giant Great White Sharks (one weighing over 3,000 pounds) in hand-to-hand combat 210 feet deep in the Caribbean Ocean.
- Age 50, USA. Father and son World’s Record: Richard and son Myles, then age 18, waterskied non-stop on separate slalom skis behind the same boat for 6 hours, circling the freezing waters of Lake Tahoe 3 times. Longest time in history for two skiers behind the same boat.
- Age 54, SWITZERLAND. The first person to successfully waterski non-stop around the perimeter of Lake Geneva.
- Age 70, ISRAEL. The first person to successfully waterski non-stop around the Kinneret (The Biblical Sea of Galilee).
- Age 72, ISRAEL. Repeated his 70th Birthday Feat, but this time with his youngest son, Sean, then age 12. Both father and son waterskied non-stop and no falls behind the same boat, establishing a father-and-son World’s Record which will stand the test of time.
An ultimate competitor, Richard loves to compete, loves to win and embraces life with zest and vigor. His slogan is “Nothing is Impossible”, and he has taught that to his six children, six grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.
“I am an optimist”, Richard proclaims, adding “It does not seem much use being anything else. A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity; an optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity.”
Age 40
Age 40
Age 48
Age 50
Age 68
Age 72
RICHARD MINNS: THE INCREDIBLE LANGUAGE OF HIS SCULPTURE
Every artist and every sculptor is influenced by those who have preceded him.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Auguste Rodin and Gian Lorenzo Bernini have been a major influence on Sculptor Richard Minns.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, and God created Man in His own image. Almost from the beginning of time, Artists and Sculptors have sought the truth by re-creating and re-defining Man in their own image and in God’s image.
The nude human figure was their source of inspiration. They, like Richard, found their truth in nature and they illustrated the beauty and wonder of man and woman through their interpretation of the Gods and Goddesses of Classical Mythology and the Heroes of the Bible. This surged into prominence with the Classic Greek and Roman Old Masters, moving into the
Renaissance and undisputedly, in Richard’s view, the greatest sculptor in History: Michelangelo Buonarroti, who set the standard of excellence for every artist and sculptor thereafter.
Michelangelo was the primary influence on Auguste Rodin who, from 1860 to 1910, made his mark as “the greatest living sculptor since Michelangelo”. This was the time of the famous Impressionists. Rodin alone was to sculpture as Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne combined were to painting. Rodin brought a new dimension to sculpture, much the same as Impressionism and Symbolism were doing to painting.
In Richard Minns, we present a 21st Century Sculptor, with 21st Century techniques, but with the anatomical discipline of the Renaissance Old Masters combined with the expressionistic movement of the French Impressionists.
In Richard’s hands, clay, wax, wood, bronze and marble are transformed into figures that manifest the human condition. Richard understands the possibilities of the male and female nude and the spectacle of muscles in movement. Every inch of Richard’s sculptures, from head to toe, convey the total human spectrum of emotion.
Richard’s sculptures are more than a work of Art. Richard is a story teller. Each of his sculptures illustrates a famous story.
Richard interprets stories and heroes from the Bible, which, in his capable hands, literally come alive with anatomical perfection, compelling emotion and maximum movement. Richard’s sculptures are truly 3-dimensional and must be viewed with 360º careful scrutiny.
If you walk by an important sculpture in a museum, in front of a building, in a City plaza, or in a park, you are passing something that can open your eyes and mind to a new world. If you give it only a quick glance, you will surely miss the experience. But if you stop, look carefully, walk around the sculpture, and watch it change as you see it from different angles, you will be able to make some astonishing discoveries.
This is how it is with Richard Minns’ creations: They must be carefully observed, viewed from every angle, first from a distance and then up close. Finally they must be touched because physical contact produces a powerful response to his work.
Richard states: “We are used to thinking of each person we know well as having a distinct individual appearance that is always recognizable and relatively unchanging. Yet in the intimate caress of love, for example, as we explore the body of our beloved, we discover curves, hollows, ridges, muscles, bones, rippling shadows, striking highlights – looking fresh and new and more beautiful than ever, as if we had never seen them before.”
“The opening lines of the final stanza in T. S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’ are a perfect description of my experience:
’We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive at where we started
And know the place for the first time.’
This is the experience Richard wants you to have when you own one of his original sculptures: adventure, curiosity, challenge, surprise, discovery, never-ending exploration.
Richard invites you to touch his sculptures. To feel the qualities of the work.
“The art of making sculpture, especially the male and female nude, is a sensual form of creativity. It grows primarily out of the emotional relationship we have to the human figure – our own to begin with, and more importantly those of others who arouse in us the passions associated with physical love. When we touch what sculptors have created, we get the feeling that we are experiencing the same intense emotion felt by the artists when creating their works. Our hands repeat the experiences they had, and we become lovers of form just as they were”, he continues.
Richard wants the owners of his original sculpture to enjoy a special kind of visual and physical interaction with his sculpture.
Essential to the appreciation of Richard’s sculpture is light. And this is where an artistic partnership is formed between the sculpture and its owner. Whether the light is coming from the left or the right, the top or the bottom, makes a crucial difference in the appearance of the forms. A strong light, for example, may reveal the bulges of a figure that represent muscle and bone and give strength to the work, or the texture of hand and tool marks that show the artist’s personal touch. So, by controlling the light, owners of the sculpture become artists in their own home, creating for themselves the dramatic effect that satisfies their individual taste.
The nude figure has clearly been a dominant theme during all key periods of artistic achievement. Richard strives to create a work of art that immortalizes his vision of beauty. Like the Old Masters, Richard is moved to probe the three-dimensional world for the forms that satisfy his creative urges. Richard is emotionally involved in the nakedness of the figures he represents and he strives to bring into being the ideas that excite his passions.
Richard pours his energy, passion and his very soul into his sculptures until he falls in love with them, like Pygmalion, the mythical Greek artist who fell in love with his sculpture of Venus. To Pygmalion’s great joy, the gods brought his sculpture to life, and she became a real woman, Galatea, with whom he could fulfil his love.
Richard strives to create a work of art that will immortalize his vision of beauty.
Richard Minns was born to be a Sculptor
I met Richard Minns when he first made Aliyah and moved to Israel. An extremely muscular tanned American, bursting with life and vitality, who looked 25 years younger than what I discovered was his actual age, had come to my gallery in Caesarea to see my sculptures. He told me that he liked my sculptures and he bought one. That was the beginning of our friendship.
Richard had trained in Painting and Sculpture at the Hampstead Academy in London and then at Avni Art Institute in Jaffa, Israel. Richard was in search of a Sculpture Academy capable of furthering his desire to excel in anatomical sculpture. It was my pleasure to introduce Richard to my friend and colleague David Zundelovitch, the founding director of Israel’s Basis School, a school run by some of the finest Russian sculptors I have known.
I have been a professional sculptor for over 30 years and I exhibit and sell my sculptures all over the world, but the art of sculpture is a continual learning process, so when I had some extra time (as the result of the second Intifada), I spent a year at BASIS to re-hone my skills, and I worked side-by-side with Richard. Actually, I was his translator since Russian is my native language. Richard soared at the Basis School, completing the five-year course in two years, and I have never seen someone of any age progress so fast. Although he started sculpture late in life, Richard was born to be a sculptor.
I now share two large studios with Richard in Hadassah Neurim, overlooking the beautiful breaking water of the Mediterranean ocean. I have watched Richard develop as a sculptor and I see him work every day.
When Richard works, he works with intense absolute concentration. He literally becomes part of his sculpture, and nothing else exists. We can be in the same studio all day and unless Richard needs something, not a word is said. It is as if his very soul is captured in his creation. He becomes its willing prisoner and his soul will not be set free until the sculpture is finished.
Like the Old Masters, Richard knows and understands anatomy and he literally worships the human body. He is passionate, demanding and his whole personality goes into his sculptures.
Richard has created his own sculptural language: realistic and physical, highly charged with emotion and movement, conveying sexuality in the way of Michelangelo, Rodin and Bourdelle.”
Leon Bronstein
International Sculptor
Owner / Director of Old City Caesarea Gallery