Donal Albert Hord (né Donald Albert Horr; February 26, 1902 – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor in San Diego, California. He is known for his large scale works in stone and wood created through the Federal Art Project.

Early life

Donal Hord was born as Donald Albert Horr on February 26, 1902, in Prentice, Wisconsin. His parents divorced when he was a child.

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.

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 been subsequently removed, for its whereabouts are listed as "missing" in the various inventories of Hord’s work.) After moving to San Diego, Hord began the serious study of art. He arrived in 1916, the year that the Panama–California Exposition had taken over Balboa Park, and where Hord was exposed to the architecture of Bertram Goodhue, the sculpture of the Piccirilli Brothers and the cultural, ethnographic and botanical exhibits that helped make up exposition.

Because of his poor health Hord was primarily homeschooled, which led to his developing a very personal relationship with the San Diego Public Library and its attendant librarians. Later in his career he was to produce two large relief panels for the San Diego Public Library's then-new Central Library building, panels that alluded to several of his interests, notably reading and Asian art. The latter interest developed early in his life. As a teenager Hord had begun collecting Asian and Mexican art pieces.

Education

thumb|right|[[Guardian of Water, 1939, San Diego]]

thumb|right|[[Woman of Tehuantepec (sculpture)|Woman of Tehuantepec, 1935, Balboa Park, San Diego]]

thumb|right|Detail from Westwind, 1953, Wangenheim Room, San Diego Public Library's Central Library

1917 found Hord enrolling in art night classes at San Diego High School, under the tutelage of Anna Valentien, a sculptor and potter who had at one point studied in Paris with Auguste Rodin. She was a respected visual artist in her own right. which still stands in front of the San Diego County Administration Building, Aztec, located at San Diego State University, and seven limestone panels, Legend of California, for Coronado High School. In 1943 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1951.

The years following the end of the Second World War found Hord at the height of his artistic prowess, producing not only many fine smaller works, but also, with the aid of Homer Dana, several large architectural works, notably two large concrete bas-reliefs for the San Diego Public Library's Central Library. In 1956 his work, Angel of Peace was unveiled at the American Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium, a commission from the American Battle Monuments Commission that he inherited from Carl Milles who died before he was able to produce it.

Hord was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in sculpture in 1945 and 1947. Hord was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949.

Style

One of the characteristics that makes Hord’s work unique was his choice of the materials from which he created them. Besides the standard bronze, limestone, granite, cast stone, terra cotta, and the marbles used by other artists, Hord’s works appeared in various tropical woods such as mahogany, eucalyptus, ebony, lignum vitae, and rosewood, and in minerals such as obsidian, diorite, onyx and nephrite. His jade piece, Thunder, at 104 pounds, was reckoned to be the largest jade sculpture ever produced. What most of these materials have in common is that they are very hard and difficult to work. Beginning in the 1920s Hord was a part of the "direct carving" school of sculpture, meaning that rather than carving from a previously produced model, Hord allowed his work to be influenced by the grain of the material that he was carving.

Death and legacy

On June 29, 1966, Hord died in Mercy Hospital in San Diego, mere weeks after suffering from a heart attack. He was survived by his wife Florence.

  • CCC Workers (1934), South Pasadena Jr. High School, South Pasadena, California
  • Woman of Tehuantepec (1935), Balboa Park, San Diego, California
  • Aztec (1937), San Diego State University, San Diego, California
  • Men Working on a Road (1937), Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, California
  • Mexican Mother and Child (1938), Roosevelt Memorial Museum, Hyde Park, New York
  • Guardian of Water (1939), in front of the San Diego County Administration Center, San Diego, California
  • Legend of California (1939), Coronado High School, Coronado, California
  • Girl Reading (1940), Herbert Hoover High School, San Diego, California
  • Panels (1941), Kit Carson Elementary School, San Diego, California
  • Spring Stirring (1948), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
  • Peon Game Guessers and Peon Game Passers (1950), San Diego Public Library's Central Library, San Diego, California
  • Literature West and Literature East (1953), San Diego Public Library's Central Library, San Diego, California
  • Westwind (1953), San Diego Public Library's Central Library, San Diego, California
  • Young Bather (1955), San Diego Public Library's La Jolla/Riford Branch, San Diego, California
  • Justice (1956) Los Angeles County Courthouse, Los Angeles, California
  • Angel Of Peace (1958), American Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Welkenraedt, Wallonia, Belgium