Edmond Shumpert

Art Brokerage: Edmond Shumpert Sculptor: b. 1942. Edmond Shumpert was born in West Point, Mississippi, in 1942. For most of his career he worked in California. Shumpert produces about fifteen to twenty life-sized sculptures and smaller pieces a year in his studio, which is a 20 by 50 metal building with a foundry. After studying at the Art Center in Pasadena, California, Shumpert spent four years as a medical illustrator at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, studying the structure of muscles and learning about human anatomy while preparing himself for his profession as a sculptor. Some of his most famous works include Sitting Bull, Johnny Weissmuller (the two-time Olympic swimming champion who was later Tarzan in twelve movies), Jim Thorpe (the Native American athlete who won Olympic awards which were later stripped from him), Duke Kahanamoku (another Olympic gold medal winner). The Kahanamoku statue is in the public lounge of Honolulu International Airport. Shumpert has also done another well-known surfer known as the Ultimate Challenge statue in Huntington Beach, California, 1976. In Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, there is a statue of Thorpe created in 2007. The statue depicts Thorpe as a football player. A second statue, dedicated in 2011, shows Thorpe throwing a discus. The Thorpe memorial also includes an abstract sculpture, The Spirit of Thunder and Lightning, that was dedicated in 1998. Shumpert created a bronze sculpture of Mississippi State’s mascot bulldog named TaTonka. That statue was done in 2008 and is on display at the university’s campus. It is a favorite place for many fans to take photos. Listings wanted.