Ira Bruce Reines (born December 3, 1957) is an American artist best known for his bronze sculptures. He currently resides in

Norwalk, Connecticut , image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Reines began making clay figurines at age 6. After the family moved to Connecticut when Reines was 15, he began to win art competitions. Entirely self-taught and garnering accolades, at 19 the director of the

Medallic Art Company Medallic Art Company, Ltd. based in Dayton, Nevada was at one time "America’s oldest and largest private mint" and specialized in making academic awards, maces, medallions, along with chains of office and universities medals for schools. Aft ...

offered Reines a job sculpting medallions. After a few years of developing his plaster skills, Reines caught the attention of Art Deco master,

Erté Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, from the French pronunciation of his initials (, EHR TEH). He was a 20th-century artist and designer in an a ...

. For the next eleven years, Reines worked alongside Erté, transforming Erté's two-dimensional works into three-dimensional bronze sculptures. This collaboration continued until Erté's death in 1990. These sculptures became known as the Erté Sculpture Collections and are housed in the permanent collections of both the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and the Smithsonian. Reines' work has drawn comparisons to Renaissance masters,

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

and

Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...

, as well as 20th century sculptor, Frederick Hart. It was not until the early 2000s that Reines fully developed his own stylistic-voice which he calls, "Sculptural Etherealism." Reines' work can be found in collections in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Works

Reines' sculptures have been exhibited in a number of notable museums and are currently installed in several public places. *

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Society of the Four Arts The Society of the Four Arts is a non-profit charity organization that was founded in 1936. Its campus on the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach is home to the Esther B. O’Keeffe Gallery Building, which includes the Esther B. O’Keeffe Art Gal ...

* Garner-Webb University * Coral Springs Museum of Art * Evansville Museum of Art * Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reines, Ira Bruce 1957 births Living people American sculptors Sculptors from New York City Sculptors from New York (state) 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American sculptors