Olympics-American artist Feuerman aims to inspire with her 'Diver' sculpture

By Kathryn Lurie

PARIS - American artist Carole Feuerman, renowned for her super-realist sculptures of swimmers and divers, has a larger-than-life work on exhibit centre stage at the Olympics in Paris.

Her sculpture "The Diver", made in 2011 of bronze with a black patina and a polished bronze cap, was selected out of thousands of applicants to be exhibited at the Eiffel Tower for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.

The mayor of Paris was familiar with Feuerman’s work, already having seen the work on display years earlier at a Parisian intersection.

"This is a perfect piece for the Olympics," Feuerman said, explaining that she was inspired many years ago by diver Greg Louganis when they met at the Swimming Hall of Fame.

"When I watched him dive … I knew I had to make a sculpture of a diver in that position, in that beautiful curve."

The sculpture, which weighs approximately 1,200 pounds, almost didn’t make it to Paris. It is one of an edition of only three, the first of which Feuerman’s gallery sold, apparently unaware of its Olympic destiny.

Luckily, Feuerman had already started on a second one, and the foundry hurried to finish it. But it got held up in customs and missed its flight. They managed to get it on the next flight out, and two days later it was installed directly in front of the Eiffel Tower.

"The Olympics is the sport of perseverance, of integrity, trust, honesty and striving to achieve the impossible," she said, "and I really believe that it fits in with that theme and that spirit."

Feuerman has been making her art for more than 60 years. "In my own struggles and striving to persevere, I came up with the themes from the heart to do my own stories."

In 2011, she founded the Carole A. Feuerman Sculpture Foundation, which fosters innovative artistic expression and the creative process by organising fine art exhibitions that showcase the work of under-represented artists.

"I just want to be an inspiration for athletes and for young people to never give up."

(Reporting by Kathryn Lurie and Jenna Zucker; Editing by Hugh Lawson)