Flame
A vertical priestess figure conceived as a meeting of cultures: Greek fluting, an Eastern pelvis, a Renaissance torso, and arms rising into abstraction.
1943–44 · approximately ½ tonGallery · figure, material, landscape
The work of
the hand.
Before the quarry became one vast sculpture, Fite carved bodies, dancers, animals, portraits, archetypes, and stories from wood and stone.
Selected views
From a single face to an entire world
This visual gallery centers on openly licensed photographs of Fite’s self-portrait and his largest surviving work, Opus 40. Select any image to view it closely and see its credit.
The Family of Man
The humanist suite
Beginning in 1943, Fite carved a group of monumental bluestone figures for the quarry terraces. As the setting grew in scale, the figures were moved to the surrounding grounds and the architecture of stone became the central work.
Tomorrow
A reclining human figure in bluestone, monumental but grounded, made for the terraces of Fite’s original outdoor sculpture gallery.
1943–44 · approximately 2 tonsPrayer
A smaller kneeling figure with clasped hands—one of the contemplative human forms once positioned within the quarry composition.
1940s · bluestoneThe Quarry Family
A group of two adults and two children, perhaps reflecting Fite’s new family with Barbara and her sons.
1940s · approximately 4 tonsStudio practice
A much wider body of work
Fite continued making studio sculpture throughout the decades he built Opus 40. Surviving works include sensuous black-walnut dancers, biblical narratives, carved portrait heads, hands, working bodies, abstract forms, and small animals in wood and alabaster.
His 1948 black-walnut work And His Anger Waxed Hot turns the story of Moses into a compact, totem-like form. The mid-1950s Modern Dance series translates choreography into curved masses and held tension. A later Woman with Windswept Hairshows how long movement remained central to his sculpture.
Play
Amaranth · shown at the Whitney, 1947
And His Anger Waxed Hot
Black walnut · 1948
Modern Dance IV & V
Black walnut · mid-1950s
Workingman’s Arm
Ebony · described as a self-portrait
Woman with Windswept Hair
Wood · 1970
Sleeping Cat
Yellow pine · date not confirmed