Ibram Lassaw (May 4, 1913 – December 30, 2003) was a

Russian-American Russian Americans ( rus, русские американцы, r=russkiye amerikantsy, p= ˈruskʲɪje ɐmʲɪrʲɪˈkant͡sɨ) are Americans of full or partial Russians, Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian diaspora, Russian imm ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, known for non-objective construction in

brazed Brazing is a metal-joining process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, with the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Brazing differs from we ...

metals.

Biography

Lassaw was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Russian émigré parents, he went to the U.S. in 1921. His family settled in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He became a US citizen in 1928. He first studied sculpture in 1926 at the Clay Club and later at the

Beaux-Arts Institute of Design The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (BAID, later the National Institute for Architectural Education) was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City.Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Sophie Taeuber-Arp Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber-Arp (; 19 January 1889 – 13 January 1943) was a Swiss artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect, and dancer. Born in 1889 in Davos, and raised in Trogen, Switzerlan ...

, and other artists. He also attended the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

.Philips, Lisa. ''The Third Dimension: Sculpture of the New York School''. Whitney Museum of American Art, 1984, p. 76. Influenced by his study of art history and readings in European art magazines, Lassaw began to make sculpture in the late 1920s. He was among the "small group of artists committed themselves to abstract art during the 1930s." In his work, Ibram Lassaw "replaced the monolithic solidity of cast metal with open-space constructions obtained by welding." During the mid-1930s, Lassaw worked briefly for the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admin ...

cleaning sculptural monuments around New York City. He subsequently joined the

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

as a teacher and sculptor until he was drafted into the army in 1942. Lassaw's contribution to the advancement of sculptural abstraction went beyond mere formal innovation; his promotion of

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

styles during the 1930s did much to insure the growth of

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

in the United States. He was one of the founding members of the

American Abstract Artists American Abstract Artists (AAA) was formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major fo ...

group, and served as president of the American Abstract Artists organization from 1946 to 1949. Lassaw is a sculptor who was a part of the New York School of

Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

during the 1940s and 1950s.

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...

, James Brooks,

John Ferren John Millard Ferren (October 17, 1905 – July 1, 1970) was an American artist and educator. He was active from 1920 until 1970 in San Francisco, Paris and New York City. Early life John Ferren was born in Pendleton, Oregon on October 17, ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

, and several other artists like Lassaw spent summers on the Southern Shore of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. Lassaw spent summers on Long Island from 1955 until he moved there permanently in 1963. His work has been exhibited in galleries, including the

Anita Shapolsky Gallery The Anita Shapolsky Gallery is an art gallery that was founded in 1982 by Anita Shapolsky. It is currently located at 152 East 65th Street, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, in New York City. The gallery specializes in 1950s and 1960s abstract e ...

in New York City and Harmon Meek Gallery in

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...

Sources

*John Lynch
''Metal sculpture; new forms, new techniques''
p. 99; p. 135
''Scultura in America''
(Roma : Edizioni della cometa, 1990.) p. 73–82
''200 years of American sculpture''
(New York: David R. Godine in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, ©1976.) p. 181; p. 183; p. 184; p. 286

References

External links

American Abstract ArtistsIbram Lassaw Exhibition in Matera, Italy; Sculptures and works on paper 1913–2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lassaw, Ibram American people of Egyptian-Jewish descent Egyptian Ashkenazi Jews Jewish sculptors Jewish American artists American people of Russian-Jewish descent Abstract expressionist artists Public Works of Art Project artists Egyptian emigrants to the United States Egyptian people of Russian descent People from Brooklyn Artists from New York City People from Alexandria 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century male artists American male sculptors 1913 births 2003 deaths Burials at Green River Cemetery Sculptors from New York (state) Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (New York City) alumni 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Biography

See also

Sources

References

External links