Cushman, Nancy Cox-McCormack, b. 1885

Nancy Cox-McCormack Cushman was an American sculptor, writer, artist, and socialite. Although she created some altar panels and abstracts, her work consisted mostly of portrait sculpture, primarily in bronze and terra cotta. Particularly productive between 1910 and 1953, her work included a broad range of well and lesser known people. These included Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, poet Ezra Pound, lawyer Clarence Darrow, social reformer Jane Addams, Italian architect Giacomo Boni, Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, and Indian politician Mohandas K. Ghandi. Through her work and social contacts, Cushman cultivated a wide variety of notable friends and associates including the family of author Stephen Vincent Benet; social reformer Louis de Koven Bowen; Italian poet and anti-fascist Lauro De Bosis; Ezra and Dorothy Pound; artist Elizabeth Sparhawk Jones; writer and journalist Clara Laughlin; Grace Hegger Lewis, wife of Sinclair Lewis; opera singer Gladys Swarthout; and the family of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Her work received little critical attention during her lifetime or since, but local newspapers covered her work and travels extensively.

Nancy Cox-McCormack Cushman working on a bust of Benito Mussolini, 1923

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