Saunders Schultz (1927—2017) was an American sculptor known for relating his sculptures with their architectural surroundings. His work includes Site-Specific Sculpture, Nature-Interactive Sculpture, Science-Interactive Sculpture.

Schultz was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1927 to Rose and Abraham Schultz. Before graduating high school, he worked as an artist in the St. Louis area by painting murals for local businesses. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington University School of Fine Arts, St. Louis, in 1950 and subsequently was the recipient of a fellowship to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in 1952.

In 1960, along with fellow sculptor Bill Severson, Schultz founded "Scopia",[3] a sculpture studio in Chesterfield, Missouri. After which, he became one of the founders of Environmental Sculpture.

As a sculptor, painter, educator, and author, Schultz is considered one of the founding fathers of architectural art in an environmental context. Schultz taught master classes and symposia at various universities including Harvard University School of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

His sculpture has been published in ARTnews, Architectural Record, Architectural Forum, and many others.

Schultz collaborated with architects and landscape designers including Eero Saarinen,[ Minoru Yamasaki, Hideo Sasaki, Art Gensler, EDAW, Mitchell/Giurgola, RTKL, Ellerbe Becket, Erich Mendelsohn, Edward D. Stone, Jr., Thomas Ventullett III, and Theodore Wofford. Schultz also worked on proposed projects with Pietro Belluschi, Benjamin Thompson, and The Architects Collaborative.

Schultz's sculptures vary from model-size to twenty-seven stories tall and are located in thirty-five states and the District of Columbia, as well as Moscow, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions including Plastics, USA and the European Exhibit of the United States Information Agency, and the Moscow College of Industrial and Applied Arts in the former Soviet Union. He defined himself as a site-specific sculptor, developing projects with a social consciousness, projects he described as having "collaborative community envisioning." One such effort is still ongoing, the Eco Arch, proposed for the East St. Louis riverfront.

Schultz installed his last creation in November 2015, a sculpture titled Continuum, commissioned by the company re-branding itself from "The Brown Shoe Company" to "Caleres", and fabricated by Maker Technical Sculpture Services, of Toronto, Canada. The stainless steel sculpture, weighing 3,700 pounds, sits on top of a fountain designed by project architect Theodore Wofford.

Schultz was the recipient of both national and international awards including: Carnegie Institute Achievement Award First Prize at the Invitational Competition, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay "Finite/Infinite", first public art project awarded by Civilian Facilities Administration (forerunner of HUD). Later selected by jury from 1,700 international entries for publication in HUD's National Community Arts Program, The Florida AlA Award for Excellence First Prize, Highland Garden, Broward County Florida Housing Authority, HUD Invitational Competition, The National Association of Counties Award, Oppenstein Park, Kansas City, Missouri.

Source:
Wikipedia, 2021