Pablo Davis OR Robert Youngman (sculptors)

I was always curious about the artistic panels placed on the Comerica 411 Lafayette Building. Now, I know that Robert Youngman, the noted sculptor, created these panels and I have the photos of him creating them. However, local artist Pablo Davis claims to be the one who designed these panels.

Here is the quote from his site:

Quote:

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Pablo designed these panels in the mid-1950's for what was once the Manufacturers' Bank [[and is now the Comerica Bank) at the intersection of Lafayette and Cass in downtown Detroit. The design was inspired by Aztec and Mayan sculpture and was his reaction to the proliferation of glass and steel buildings. In these designs he undertook to merge monumental Latin American sculpture with contemporary, abstract, expressionist art through the use of new, large-scale, prefabricated concrete technologies. He used a sandcasting technique and worked with a concrete manufacturer in Flint to produce these sculptures for the building's architects. To him, the panels evoke the feeling of jazz music and make a statement of character, rugged elegance, and distinctiveness that bring relief from the typical reflective surfaces so typical everywhere else. For Pablo, it brings a sense of joy, warmth and "human-ness" to this part of Detroit.

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So, did Pablo Davis work on these panels WITH Robert Youngman OR is he claiming he is the one who created them? I have photos of Youngman hand carving all these panels by himself soI want to set the record straight.

Here are a few attached photos of the murals and Youngman working on them.

I am Robert Youngman's daughter, Rebekah Youngman. When I learned that someone was claiming responsibility for my father's work in Detroit at the once known as Manufacturer's Bank Headquarters - I wondered how any such false information could be thought of as credible. Even Wikipedia had Pablo Davis as the artist. It comes back to authoritative sources, and there are plenty that have my father's name attached to the work. The noted Detroit architect of the Comerica Building, Louis G. Redstone, authored at least two books on art and architecture that cite my father, Robert Youngman, as the sculptor. Check out Purdue's Engineering Fountain, one of the last monumental scale pieces Dad did [[Youngman, W.R. Monumental Concrete Sculpture for Public Places: A 30 Year Retrospective, E & FN Spon, London, 1996) I am not sure who is really behind Pablo Davis' website and the falsity there regarding my father's work, but it's bold falsity and can be easily proved so. Thanks for providing the photos of my father working on the molds. Reply here if you want me to contact you with further information. Blessings. Rebekah R. Youngman

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Originally Posted by Patrick

I was always curious about the artistic panels placed on the Comerica 411 Lafayette Building. Now, I know that Robert Youngman, the noted sculptor, created these panels and I have the photos of him creating them. However, local artist Pablo Davis claims to be the one who designed these panels.

Here is the quote from his site:


So, did Pablo Davis work on these panels WITH Robert Youngman OR is he claiming he is the one who created them? I have photos of Youngman hand carving all these panels by himself soI want to set the record straight.

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Additionally, Pablo Davis did not work in ANY capacity on the Detroit panels. There is NO connection in reality.

This would make a fantastic story for a newspaper article - many angles to approach the story from.

I am Robert Youngman's stepson. Robert conceived, sculpted, cast and installed the panels on the then, Manufacturer's bank building. I was there in person to witness the work, my mother, Mara Cibis, [[then Mara Youngman) assisted, as did two of my older brothers. Pablo Davis, to my knowledge, had no connection to this work.

If Pablo Davis is still alive he is a very, very old man. He was an old man a decade ago when I last saw him. He was then much-celebrated as a living artifact of Detroit history when Diego Rivera was working in the DIA and the young Davis was an art assistant. As he got old Davis got verbose and was given to hyperbole to keep his audience - hard to take him too seriously. Davis certainly didn't develop his own website - some admirer did and used Davis' version of history.

I wouldn't take this too seriously. Can't you just correct the Wikipedia article? As to serious art history - obviously the real artist is well-documented.

I think it is a pretty serious offense to take credit for someone else's artwork. It is called fraud. Copyright and anti-fraud laws are in effect because the uniqueness of the creative process is valued. A work of this magnitude doesn't happen overnight.

Robert Youngman spent many years as a student, artist, and professor to develop his work and get a commission like this. He passed away last year. His work is his legacy and I think that someone who knows Pablo Davis or the person who did that website should do everyone a favor and encourage him to regain his dignity and set the record straight by apologizing for the false information that he has portrayed to the public.

The works were entirely Roberts. He met me one late night [[or early morning, can’t quite remember) at the Red Roach Cafe , which I was helping run. I was a photographer and my photos were displayed throughout the cafe. He appeared to me a small bearded homeless and lonely man. He stayed drinking our Turkish cafe and eating the last of our pastries while admiring my photos. After a time he asked who had done them. When I fessed up he told me he was a sculptor brought to Detroit to sculpt some panels for a bank and they wanted a photo diary kept of the process and to hire a photographer he could comfortably work with. That was me. Went that very night to the studio they had provided [[yes, in an old now ‘classic’ Volkswagen bus) and he showed me what he had accomplish in the process so far, how he was proceeding and preliminary drawings of what the final sculpted panels would look like. We sat and talked the entire night. I slept on the couch in his studio. The next morning we began both a professional and very personal relationship. He was both a beautiful artist and gentle man.

I would appreciate seeing some of the photos but they’re not presenting themselves in any user-friendly way. Could you advise on how I may retrieve them?
cheers

Hi D.O.N.,

Would it be possible to buy digital copies of some of your photos? I edit the magazine for the American Concrete Institute, and I would like to publish an article about these and other works by Youngman.

Redactor

Hi D.O.N.,

Would it be possible to buy digital copies of some of your photos of the fabrication of the concrete panels on the Comerica building in Detroit? I edit the magazine for the American Concrete Institute, and I would like to publish an article about these and other works by Youngman.

Redactor