If you’ve ever visited Athens, Georgia for any length of time you’ll probably have seen one of Harold Rittenberry’s metal sculptures dotting the landscape. Rittenberry, now in his 90s, has a yard full of towering figures and tiny creations welded and shaped from scrap metal. His home near the downtown area, where he’s lived for decades upon decades, is the site of his shop and even nowadays you might find him sitting on his porch looking at his works and taking in a breeze.
In a startling juxtaposition to the rigidity of metal you’ll see that his art is full of movement – birds in wild flight and figures sprinting with glee – and there are inspiring mottos interwoven with nature-centric motifs.
Beyond his homestead you can find his creations all over Athens, and even into Atlanta, and it seems as if the numbers keep growing. From the Public Library to Memorial Park’s Bear Hollow Zoo and other city parks to art locales such as the Georgia Museum of Art and the Lyndon House Arts Center to Brooklyn Cemetery, Rittenberry has been busy keeping the Classic City flush with metal works!
And speaking on the latter sentence above, because cemetery, the Historic Brooklyn Cemetery is a special place for Rittenberry. Established in 1882, Brooklyn Cemetery is the final resting place for many African Americans from the surrounding area. Linda Davis, the coordinator of Friends of Brooklyn Cemetery, explains that Rittenberry told her that “as a child, he would see a funeral procession and fall in line with the mourners and escort the bodies to the burial sites in the cemetery.” After sketching up an idea, Rittenberry donated his “time, talent and labor” to create the cemetery gates’ panels. – source
One of my favorite websites Salvation South has an interview with Rittenberry as well as some amazing photos taken just a few years back. Give it a read. I know you’ll love it. Go here.
The Georgia Museum just recently released a book called Harold Rittenberry: Love is All, which is a statement you see time and time again carved out in his works, and I 10/10 recommend you pick up a copy!
The new museum publication “Harold Rittenberry: Love is All” is the first monograph on the artist. It opens with a biography by Dan T. Coenen, UGA professor emeritus of law, who reveals what led the artist to teach himself to weld. Robert Clements, UGA professor emeritus of art and fellow sculptor, provides a timeline of Rittenberry’s success with commissions and describes how the two collaborated on proposals to budding public art programs across Georgia.
William Underwood Eiland, former director of the museum, contextualizes Rittenberry’s work within a broader perspective and joins Shawnya Harris, the museum’s Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art, for an interview with the artist. In addition to many photographs of Rittenberry’s popular towers, benches and gates, the book pulls together rarely seen tabletop sculptures, paintings, drawings, wood carvings and masks. – source
Why not buy one and bring it with you to be signed by Rittenberry himself during a book release event Sunday, September 13th at the Georgia Museum of Art? I’ve already reserved my copy and I hope to see you there!*
PS I wrote an article for Flagpole about art installations in Georgia and I briefly spoke on Rittenberry’s work. You can read it here.
PPSS Pick up this week’s Flagpole [9/9/26] for a cover feature on Harold Rittenberry! *all the flowers for him* Or you can read it online here.
*This is a personal testimonial and I was not paid, compensated or asked to share this. As always, I highlight experiences like these because I like supporting local and/or independent artists, business and places.
