Juggler

Entirely self-taught, Cleveland native Fred Schmidt was a young welder and sheet metal worker for the New York Central Railroad when he decided to begin making sculpture from random metal fragments. Schmidt described his work as being inspired by “an accumulation of experience and images that continually rise from beneath the surface of conscious awareness” and acknowledged being influenced by the work of Carlotta Gonzales, Pablo Picasso, David Smith, and Alexander Calder.

Schmidt’s skillfully crafted minimalist sculptures characteristically play with color and light and are quietly elegant, peaceful, and whimsical. Juggler's graceful fluid forms seem to defy gravity while the work maintains the capacity to elucidate negative space.