Peter Ganine (October 11, 1900August 11, 1974) was a Georgian-Russian-American sculptor best known for his work in ceramics and his

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. Ganine began his art studies in Russia. He spent five years as a trader in the Belgian Congo before coming to the US in 1931, on a scholarship to

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

in Washington, D.C. He settled in Hollywood in 1932, where he lived until his death. His work was championed by longtime ''

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'' art editor and critic Arthur Millier. He served as an aircraft patternmaker during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The subjects of Ganine's sculptures were largely people or animals. He patented many of his animal sculptures, which were then reproduced in plastic and sold inexpensively. His most popular designs were a whale, which won a prize from the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, and an "uncapsizeable duck", of which over 50,000,000 were sold. When Ganine gave human faces to chess pieces, he introduced "first major change of design for chess sets in more than a century."

Personal life

Ganine married actress

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on June 5, 1954. He later married a woman named Karin.

Works

* ''Superba Gothic'' chess set (c.1930s) * ''Colt'' sculpture (c.1939) * ''Baby Centaur'' sculpture (c.1940) * ''Beer Mug'' sculpture (c.1941) * ''Rudolph'' sculpture of a

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(c.1941) * ''Bull'' sculpture (c.1941) * ''Dog'' sculpture (c.1944) * ''Why'' sculpture (c.1944) * ''Life Mask of Nicholai Fechin'' sculpture (1945) * ''Happy Womanhood'' sculpture (c.1947) – model:

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* ''Hosanna'' sculpture of choir boys (c.1948) * ''Classic'' chess set (1961) – the chess pieces from the Classic chess set were used in ''

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'' as part of the tri-dimensional chess set * ''Rearing Colt'' sculpture * ''Portrait of

'' sculpture

Exhibitions

* 1938 – Group show at the California Art Club * 1939 –

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* 1939 – The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego * 1940 – National Ceramic Exhibition at Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, where he won first prize in ceramic sculpture for ''Baby Centaur'' * 1942 – "Artist of the Month" for January, solo show at the Los Angeles County Museum * 1944 – Society for Sanity in Art's group show at Los Angeles County Museum * 1960 – Group show at W. & J. Sloane Petite Galerie in Beverly Hills

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ganine, Peter 1900 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists 19th-century American sculptors 19th-century American male artists American male sculptors Soviet expatriates in the Belgian Congo Soviet emigrants to the United States