The following is an email from Nina Berson (September 2025):

After the solo exhibition at Cornwall, I curated two more solo exhibitions for works by Gilbert A. Franklin. The first one was at California State University Channel Islands in the John Spoor Broome Gallery through November 27, 2016 and the other was at Mount Saint Mary’s College in the José Drudis-Biada Gallery in Los Angeles from November 1, 2016 through January 28, 2017.

Gilbert Franklin is one of the most significant and influential sculptors of American modernism in the Twentieth-Century. His prolific and impressive career spanned over six decades and included numerous public commissions, group and one-man exhibitions, and teaching positions throughout New England, the Midwest, and abroad.

Franklin was born in Birmingham, England and grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts. In 1938, he studied painting with John Frazier at the Hawthorne School in Provincetown, Massachusetts. By 1941, he received his B.F.A from the Rhode Island School of Design where he taught from 1942-1984. It was during this period at RISD that he served as Head of the Sculpture Department (1953-60), Chair of the Division of Fine Arts (1960-75), and Dean (1975-84). He was the co-founder of RISD’s European Honors Program and served as Director of that illustrious program for several years. He also served as a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, among other institutions. Additionally, Franklin served on several professional and academic boards. He was a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome, and served on the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts and the School of Fine Arts at Boston University. In 1984, he was named Helen M. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at RISD.

As a sculptor, Franklin worked in granite, marble, wood, and bronze. He was a master of bronze casting and his sculptures ranged from the figurative to the non-representational. As a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, Franklin connected to the classical traditions of Roman and Greek sculpture; however, the majority of his sculptures tended to convey a modernist aesthetic in their rough surfaces, boldly sliced interacting forms, and sharp edges.

Franklin was the recipient of numerous awards—namely, the Prix de Rome in Sculpture, the Grand Prize at Boston’s Fine Arts Festival, and the Providence Art Club Medal for Excellence in the Arts. He was also an elected member of the National Academy, a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and The Ella Jackson Chair at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. Additionally, he received many public commissions including: the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.; the Harry S. Truman Memorial in Independence, MO; pieces for the Hallmark Collection in Kansas City, MO; for the Gannett Building, Washington, D.C.; and the Orpheus Ascending Fountain at the Frazier Memorial in Providence, RI, as well as outdoor sculpture, Seaforms, at the Wellfleet Public Library. His final commission was a fourteen foot sculpture in Memory of Rev. Dom Peter Sidler at the Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, RI.

Franklin’s work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence, The National Academy Museum in New York, and The Corcoran Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. as well as many others. His work has been shown widely both in the U.S. and abroad including, the Whitney Museum of American Art and a major one-man exhibition at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH in 2004. The most recent museum exhibition of Franklin’s sculpture was held at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in 2010.

Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions:

2014-15 ACME Fine Art, Boston, MA
2012 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2010 Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2009 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2005 Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2004 Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH
1991-94 Long Point Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1958 Boston Fine Arts Festival, Boston, MA
1950 Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1941 Providence Art Club, Providence, RI

Selected Public Installations & Commissions:

2004 Polytropus, Rev. Dom Peter Sidler Memorial, Portsmouth Abbey School, Portsmouth, RI
1993 Seaforms, marble, Wellfleet Public Library, Wellfleet, MA
1991 Two bas-reliefs, U.S. Navy War Memorial, Washington, DC
1988 St. Gregory, Portsmouth Abbey School, Portsmouth, RI
1988 Conversation, Gannett Building, Arlington, VA
1981 Bather (Diana), Fountain, Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, MO
1976 Harry S. Truman, Memorial, Independence, MO
1973 Veritas Eternaliter Juvenis, Providence College, Providence, RI
1968 Daybreak, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
1963 Orpheus Ascending, Fountain, Frazier Memorial, Providence, RI
1958 Abraham Lincoln, Harvey Trust, Roger Williams Park, Providence, RI
Rhode Island Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Providence, RI
The Rhode Island Council Medal, Providence, RI
The Truman Award, Washington, D.C

Awards:

2003 The Ella Jackson Chair, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill
1991 Elected Member of the National Academy
1975 Providence Art Club Medal for Excellence in the Arts, Providence, RI
1975 Artist-in-Residence, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
1965-66 Artist-in-Residence, American Academy in Rome, Italy
1962-63 Artist-in-Residence, American Academy in Rome, Italy
1958 Grand Prize Boston Fine Arts Festival, Boston, MA
1948-49 Prix de Rome in Sculpture, Fellow, American Academy in Rome, Italy
1942 Museo Nacional, Traveling Fellowship, Mexico City, Mexico
1941 Alumni Fellowship, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Professional & Academic Boards:

ca. 1988-03 Trustee and Chairman, Visual Arts Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
1980 Appointed to the Board of Overseers, Department of Fine Arts, Boston University, Boston, MA
1975-80 Trustee, American Academy in Rome, Italy
1973-79 Chair, Selection Committee in Sculpture, American Academy in Rome, Italy 1976 Appointed to the Board of Overseers, University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Collections:

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Miami University, Oxford, OH
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC
RISD Museum of Art, Providence, RI
Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Boston, MA
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH
Hopkins Center for the Arts – Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Providence Art Club, Providence, RI
Provincetown Arts Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
National Academy Museum, New York, NY
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Hood Museum of Art – Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH