Charles Umlauf

Born in South Haven, Michigan, in 1911, Charles Julius Umlauf moved with his family to Chicago as a boy, where a teacher recognized his talent and helped him win scholarships to the Art Institute of Chicago. He trained under the noted sculptors Lorado Taft and Albin Polasek, mastering a wide range of materials.

In 1941 Umlauf joined the University of Texas at Austin as a professor of sculpture and life drawing — a post he held for forty years until retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1981. Among his many students was the actress Farrah Fawcett.

His work moved fluidly between haunting expressionism, neoclassical realism, and lyrical abstraction, across media from terracotta and wood to alabaster, marble, and his celebrated bronzes. Recurring subjects included religious figures, mothers and children, dancers, and the nude. Umlauf's sculptures are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and churches and public sites nationwide.

In 1985 he and his wife, Angeline, donated their Austin home, his studio, and 168 sculptures to the City of Austin, forming the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum, which opened in 1991. He died in Austin in 1994.