LAGUNA BEACH MAN USES ART TO HONOR ATHLETES

For 30 years, a Laguna Beach man has been following the ancient Greek custom of honoring sport through art. His nonprofit organization, Kalos Kagathos--the name translates from Greek to “physical distinction, nobility of mind,”--will continue that tradition when it presents a sculpture to Olympic gold medalist Michael Gross at the upcoming World Swimming Championships in Madrid, Spain.

Bruce Hopping, 70, founded Kalos Kagathos in 1956 with one goal, he said: to put athletic fitness on a pedestal by creating sport-inspired statues and statuettes, much like the Greeks, “whose sculptures are a testament to the beauty of the human form and the grace of competition.” He uses his own money (he was once vice president of a New Jersey firm providing giant timbers for piers, dry docks and shipways) and alone makes decisions for the foundation.

Hopping has been an outspoken activist in Laguna Beach, frequently a critic of the school district and city over the years. He has, among other things, urged local high schools to drop football, which he considers too dangerous, and increase their aquatic sports programs. As head of Kalos Kagathos, he has sought out California artists specializing in representational art, particularly the kind that depicts water sports. Once an athlete is chosen for an award by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., Amateur Athletic Union or Federation International de Natation--the groups Kalos Kagathos has worked with--Hopping looks to a list of artists he has compiled over the years and selects the sculptor most appropriate for the commission. His choice is then approved by the group presenting the award.

“We keep abreast of those (artists) that are established and those emerging,” he said. “We look to university campuses and galleries for our artists . . . all we require is that they follow Greek ideals of form and structure in their work and, of course, their work has to be good.”

Hopping chose Tujunga artist Edmund Schumpert to create the Gross award because of his reputation for lifelike sculptures of water sports athletes. Schumpert, who specializes in swimmers and surfers, is probably best known locally for his life-size statue of a wave-riding surfer displayed south of the Huntington Beach Pier.

For the Gross commission, Schumpert created a small bronze sculpture (“It’s about as long as an arm,” Hopping said) of a freestyle swimmer cutting through imagined water, leaving a trail of foam.

The finished piece met Hopping’s expectations. “It’s almost a perfect piece for what we intended,” he said. “It communicates the body’s beauty and the joy of sport. By staying true to the human form, by that I mean not getting abstract, it also shows some of the traits you find in Greek sculpture.”

Over the years, Kalos Kagathos has presented small sculptures to distinguished American and international swimmers, divers and water poloists honored by the NCAA, AAU and FINA. Kalos Kagathos has presented award sculptures at most of the Olympics since 1960, including the 1984 Los Angeles games when gold medalist diver Greg Louganis received an award.

Hopping is also responsible for a few larger sculptures, including a monumental, nine-foot-tall piece celebrating water sports that was first unveiled at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, and is now displayed at the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

In keeping with this practice, FINA asked Hopping to help it honor Gross--a West German who won two gold and two silver medals during the 1984 Olympics--at swimming’s most prestigious annual competition, the world championships to be held in Madrid from Wednesday to Aug. 23. The meet will feature some of the best swimmers from several countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union.

Schumpert said he was automatically drawn to the assignment because his art tries to emphasize the body’s grace and strength through athletic themes. The main challenge posed by the sculpture was “conveying a feeling of speed and suspension that is characteristic of swimming.”

To accomplish this, the form of the swimmer had to appear almost weightless and separate from the heavy base. But it also had to be supported, and Schumpert did not want to mar the effect with rods jutting from the form. He finally solved the problem by using the bubbly trail left by the swimmer as “something like a hand to hold him out there in the air.”