Donal hord biography

Donal Hord (February 26, 1902 – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor, was.
Donal Hord, an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin.
Donal Hord was born in 1902 as Donald Albert Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin.

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Donal Hord

American sculptor

Donal Hord (February 26, 1902^[1] – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin.

Early life

In 1914, Hord and his mother moved west, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly thereafter he contracted rheumatic fever, a condition that affected his heart and led to health conditions that were to be a factor in his life from then on. It was while he was ill in Seattle that Hord, spending much of his time in bed reading, developed an interest in Mexico and the people of Mexico that became powerful influence on his life and art. Believing that he could not survive another winter in damp Seattle, in 1916 his mother relocated them one more time, this time moving to the warmer, drier climate of San Diego, California, where they were both to remain for the remainders of their lives.

Hord’s interest in sculpture had begun in Seattle. An early work there by the then 13-year-old was a stone sphinx, carved into the sandstone cliffs overlooking Puget Sound. (This piece, though carved into living rock may have

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Donal Hord (1902-1966)

Donal Hord was born in 1902 as Donald Albert Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin. He moved to San Diego in 1916 where he was raised and resided until his death in 1966. Donal Hord was a San Diego artist who could make the hardest substances into flowing, life-like and spiritual forms. He studied sculpture with Anna Valentien, a student of Rodin’s, and spent two years studying bronze casting at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts with Archibald Dawson and Amory Simons.

Hord spent a year in Mexico, where he studied traditional Olmec and Zapotec art and carving on a Gould scholarship. He was fascinated with Teotihuacan civilization, which was one of monumental sculpture depicting symbolized natural phenomena such as fire, thunder, rain and celestial objects. As with Zapotec art and symbolism, Hord was also intrigued with the art of China and one can see influences from the carved reliefs of the Wei Dynasty and the polychrome earthenware of the T’ang Dynasty.

Hord expressed through his work an intense understanding of the human form and the materials wit

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Oral history interview with Donal Hord, 1964 June 25-30

Transcript

Interview

BH: BETTY LOCHRIE HOAG
DH: DONAL HORD

BH: Mr. Hord did the beautiful sculptures in San Diego, among them the Aztec, which is at San Diego State College, and the huge fountain in front of the Civic Center in San Diego. The creation of that Civic Center fountain was the subject of one of the documentary films done by the Project which is owned by . . . the rights to use it are owned by the University of Southern California. Mr. Hord is so well known that it seems pointless to go into telling about his life, since we have limited time today. He is going to tell us on the tape something about his work with the Project. Shall we begin?

DH: [Reading an old newspaper] I find here that I was Technical Advisor for the Project, as of September 18, 1937. Ha ha!

BH: Oh, you had already finished quite a lot of work by that time! Was the Aztec the first thing that you did on it?

DH: Yes, the . . . . No, the first projects I did was the figure in front of the Los Angeles County Museum and some var