John Safer

Washington DC: Joseph J. Binns, 1982. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Very good. Judith Goodman (Photographer), and Yoichi Okamoto. [10], 48, [4] pages. Illustrations (many with color). Inscription signed by Safer on fep to "my prettiest board member". Plastic protector over boards. John Safer (born September 6, 1922) is an American sculptor. Safer's varied career spans work in theater lighting, television, real estate, politics and banking.Safer is best known for his monumental sculptures, but he has also created many smaller works. These include award sculptures for organizations such as the National Air and Space Museum, the PGA Tour, the Georgetown University Lombardi Cancer Center, the World Peace Foundation, and the Shakespeare Guild.Safer's works stand in museums, galleries and embassies throughout the world. In 1972 and in 1989 the U.S. Department of State sent a group of Safer sculptures abroad to be exhibited as examples of America's finest art.In 1971 the renowned art collector and U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, Walter Annenberg, invited Safer to have an exhibition at the American Embassy in London.In 1972 President Gerald Ford presented Safer's Limits of Infinity to King Juan Carlos of Spain as a gift of state. This in turn led to several major events in Safer's sculptural career. As a result of a news report of President Ford's gift, the Dean of Harvard Law School sought to acquire a Safer sculpture for the school. This culminated in 1979 with the installation of Judgment, a monumental bronze work which was presented to Harvard Law School as a gift of Safer's class of 1949. This was Safer's first monumental public work.John McArthur, the Dean of Harvard Business School visited the palace at Zarzuela where King Juan Carlos had installed Limits of Infinity. Moved by the sculpture, Dean McArthur returned to America and commissioned Safer's 20-foot-high (6.1 m) Search for Harvard Business School. The patinated bronze was installed on the Business School grounds in 1984.In 1985 Safer was invited to exhibit sculpture in the Pioneers of Flight Hall at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C. He has the distinction of being the only artist to have ever had an exhibition in the central gallery of the most visited museum in the world.In 1989 the U.S. Department of State again sent Safer sculptures to Europe. As of 2008, the Department has exhibited Safer sculpture in London, Paris, Beijing, Dublin, Bern, Lisbon, Brussels, Bucharest, Belgrade, Nassau, Washington, and New Deli. Both public and private exhibitions of Safer sculpture can be seen in venues throughout the world.