Korczak Ziolkowski
American, 1908-1982
Born to Polish parents in Boston, and orphaned at the age of one, he grew up in a series of foster homes. Although he never received any formal art training, his gifts as a sculptor began to show at an early age. After putting himself through Rindge Technical School, he became an apprentice to a Boston ship maker. He began to carve wood and by the age of 20 had become an accomplished furniture maker. In 1939, he assisted Gutzon Borglum in the carving of the Mt. Rushmore Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The notarity as well as his familiarity with the Black Hills prompted several Lakota Chiefs to approach him about a monument honoring Native Americans. Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota wrote to him saying, “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too.”
The artist carved into a mountain the equestrian figure of Crazy Horse as a memorial to Indians and their North America history. His "Crazy Horse", shown at the moment he is designated leader of his Ogallala Sioux people, is "the largest equestrian monument to an Indian" (Reynolds 201), begun in 1948 near Deadwood, South Dakota.
The artist carved into a mountain the equestrian figure of Crazy Horse as a memorial to Indians and their North America history. His "Crazy Horse", shown at the moment he is designated leader of his Ogallala Sioux people, is "the largest equestrian monument to an Indian" (Reynolds 201), begun in 1948 near Deadwood, South Dakota.