mid-century modern bronze sculpture, Gerd Utescher (German, American)

Description

'Happy Birthday', bronze, 1971, by Gerd Utescher. The bronze sculpture is 5-7/8" wide, 8" high, an 1-7/8" deep, and weighs perhaps 5 pounds. According to the James Michener Art Museum, the artist was born in 1912 in Germany, grew up in the Weimar era, and studied drawing, graphics, and sculpture at Berlin's Academy of Fine Arts. Upon his graduation in 1937, he designed and created interior architectural decorative elements and worked as an illustrator and stage designer. After moving to the United States in 1950, he taught at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Settlement Music School, and the Allen's Lane Art Center. During the 1960s he received a number of commissions for public sculptures in Philadelphia. He died in 1983.
My wife's maternal grandmother (Irma) lived in Philadelphia, was heavily involved with The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Academy of Fine Arts, and knew the artist. Irma commissioned this as a birthday gift for her husband (Sydney), hence the inscription on the back.
This will be shipped by USPS Priority Mail.