Beauty and Glamor
- Ellen Hunt
- Jan 21
- 3 min read
For several years I’ve wanted to make molds of some of the textures of the Umlauf sculptures in the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden, across the street from Barton Springs in downtown Austin. I love the way that Umlauf makes the bronze look folded or rippling. His textures are so engaging and I was in love with their beauty. The Executive Director and Curator of the museum, Katie Robinson Edwards finally relented and on a sweltering summer day in 2024 we set out making clay molds of a few of my favorite sculptures. (And Katie and her staff were right behind me polishing the bronzes removing any tiny bit of residue the clay may have left behind. ) As I was about to leave she showed me the Farrah bust that Umlauf had sculpted in 1966.
To me and lots of folks who grew up in the 70’s, Farrah was one of those iconic people like Cher or Madonna. Farrah Fawcett was the most voted beautiful student in her high school and was an instant celebrity at UT when she attended, ultimately studying art, and taking classes with Charles Umlauf. Their friendship and rapport grew from those classes at UT into a lifelong friendship for them both. Farrah was Umlauf’s muse and his mentorship helped her private career as an artist, especially as a sculptor, for the rest of her life.
Farrah’s image, carefully crafted before the internet existed, was made for the media of the time…check-out line tabloids, People Magazine and TV sitcoms. She was a star, more like Kim Kardashian than Meryl Streep, known for how she looked with that amazing hair, those perfect teeth, her piercing eyes, and that smile. Long before influencers there was product marketing, and in addition to the products she endorsed, there was just the brand of Farrah.
For someone in the spotlight at all times, how do you separate beauty from glamor? In her bravery, at the end of her life, Farrah let the camera into her hospital room. Fighting cancer for many years, she didn’t shy away from how the disease took away the glamor from her beauty as a human, as we all are. With Umlauf’s bronze bust of Farrah one can’t see her pearly white teeth. Her eyes are bronze, not blue. The things that made her exceptional are missing, but the overall beauty without glamor is clear.
When casting elements of the bronze, I was able to focus on her eyes and lips. Separated from any other context the eyes and lips became surreal to me. Reading Katie Robinson Edwards’ former comments on Farrah, I’m obviously not the first one to separate these elements from the whole. There are several sketches that she owned by Andy Warhol of her eyes. I made several different casts of her eyes, with one a direct nod to Dali. There is a painting Farrah made of herself and her husband that makes their eyes part of a surreal context, so in her own work she is aware of the power of removing beauty from glamor and the surrealistic power of the gaze separated from the whole.
Her lips, taken just on their own, are beautiful. Umlauf must have had so much joy making this sculpture, bringing something so solid appear lifelike. And the he castings are big! For a long time they were so imposing I just stared at them. In the end, I decided that they would be best as a necklace, repeating the wearer’s lips in a nod to surrealism. One set is put on a wire hoop, similar to the 70’s jewelry trend, the other set is set with pink bamboo coral. For me, beads are the equivalent of lipstick for necklaces, adding color and a bit of pizzazz, and that pink color defines the 70’s for me.
This project has been a delight for me, working with Katie and everyone at the Umlauf. Please come by the UMLAUF to see the pieces in person, and see the exhibit Beyond the Bombshell: Farrah Fawcett
xoEllen
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