Man Carving His Own Destiny

Man Carving His Own Destiny has a long history. The first of 53 variations was created in 1907 while Albin Polasek was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and came from the idea which endeavored to show man hewing his way out of darkness and the prison of ignorance, chiseling is how own destiny. In 1920, after becoming the head of the Sculpture Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, he modeled a new version of “Man Carving” which was four feet high. The second-to-last version of “Man Carving” resides in Polasek’s own home in Winter Park—a towering piece carved out of limestone and serves to remind visitors of the sculptor’s insistence on making his way in the world on his own terms. This version was presented as a longterm loan to the Winter Park Public Library by the Albin Polasek Foundation in 1991.