JH inherited this twenty-six-inch-tall sculpture. She knows a Santa Barbara artist with a Greek name created it. I found that artist, our local genius in metal, Aristides Burton Demetrious (1932-2021) who lived in Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara. JH’s work is pierced aluminum in a perfect box of Lucite. Despite her ‘problems’ understanding it, she now loves it, and wants to know more about the artist.
A prolific, respected, and loved personality, he came from artistic royalty. His father, a sculptor, received training from a student of August Rodin. His mother was a textile designer and famed children’s book author. After Aristides (Aris) graduated Harvard, he served in the Navy and then studied under his father on the East Coast. He entered the USC School of Architecture in 1959.
The Claw
I will list some of the places he created commissioned sculptures. None is quite as famous perhaps as The Claw, known to generations of Stanford Students, one of the young artist’s first commissions. An obituary in the Stanford Report in January 2022 mentions that students since the 1960s have waded, hopped, swam, danced, and dangled feet in Aris’ fountain euphemistically named The Claw. It’s the focal point of Dead Week.
You can find it between the Old Student Union and the Bookstore. In the site of rituals and proposals, stands a sixteen-foot-tall creation of welded bronze graduating to copper in a shallow blue tiled pool, surrounded by benches. Rituals? Yes, every autumn before the big UC Berkeley – Stanford game, students impale a massive stuffed bear on the top claw, representing Oski, Berkley’s mascot.
Demetrious visited in 2010 to fine tune the aging sculpture and supervise repairs. The Stanford Report quoted him saying the fountain had been commissioned in the late 1950s early 1960s by the White family, who lost two Stanford brothers before they graduated. Demetrious said, “The fountain is a metaphor (for the brother’s unknown futures). It starts in bronze, firm and durable, and terminates in water patterns, diaphanous and mutable. It speaks to what the brothers might have become.”
Other Works by Demetrious
Of course I’ve run into collectors who own works by Demetrious in Santa Barbara, even a few who commissioned large scale outdoor works. A few of the national public commissioned sculptures he created include Sacramento County Courthouse and the sculpture for the entry to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
His memorial sculpture on the remote island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manilla Bay, Philippines, honors the Bataan people. The island was a center of disputes since the 1500s hosting Chinese pirates, Dutch privateers, Spanish traders, Muslim soldiers, and Spanish American War and WWI and WWII military installations. The work is The Flame of Freedom.
On a hill in South San Francisco he created a ninety-two-foot-tall aeolian harp. In 2002, Santa Barbara Beautiful awarded Demetrious for the eighteen foot-tall fountain called Mentors created for Santa Barbara City College, overlooking the Pacific, donated by Eli Luria and Michael Towbes.
He made a twenty-one-foot bronze fountain for UCLA, and other works for UC Merced, a work for Jack London Square, for churches, corporations, schools, banks, hotels, and hospitals. His work is found in private collections locally of the Tragos, Dart/Cohen, and Emmons families.
Commissioned Works by Demetrious
Commissioned work is one of the hardest things an artist undertakes. Not only does the artist strive to please themselves, but actually works for the vision of another. Sometimes the “other” is a panel of people, such as those on a public art advisory panel. Sometimes one’s “boss” is one individual with a firm idea of what one’s design SHOULD be. Getting the personalities and egos to balance is a challenge. By the length of the list of commissions undertaken by Demetrious, it looks like he was a total professional at the art of “artist for hire.” The trick isn’t to compromise one’s artistic vision, which it seems he also achieved, judging by his variety of objects, media, styles and sizes. An artist cannot do commission work for six generations if they fail at that fine balance.
For six generations he also showed in solo shows, such as at Sullivan Goss (2009) and Jardin de la Granada. Plus shows in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Carmel, Oakland, in New Mexico, Washington DC and Connecticut.
So, you see JH you inherited quite a treasure. It’s valued at $3,000-4,000.