Clement Renzi, the sculptor who created, “The Three Graces” and “The Three Rs,” two iconic pieces of art on the California State University, Fresno campus, has died.
Mr. Renzi was 84 when he succumbed to cancer on Tuesday, Dec. 1, in Fresno, where he had been sculpting from his backyard studio since the 1960s.
“The Three Graces” is a bronze piece outside an entrance to the Music Building’s Concert Hall. It was cast in 1972 in Verona, Italy. The sculpture was donated to the university in 1995 by real estate executive Helen Smades, a longtime supporter of Fresno State and a member of its Foundation Board of Governors.
“The Three Rs” was installed in 1998 near the east entrance to Fresno State’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development as part of the Teachers Honor Plaza. The design is incorporated in the school’s logo.
A twin of the three-foot sculpture, which salutes education’s foundation, is in the Fresno County Office of Education, which joined Educational Employees Credit Union in presenting “The Three Rs” to Fresno State.
Mr. Renzi’s work is in many public places around the community, including the Fulton Mall and Courthouse Park in downtown Fresno, and also at the University of Virginia, Notre Dame University and Penn Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
His wife, Dorothy, is an emerita professor of music at Fresno State. She was on the faculty from 1968-84.
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