Sorel Etrog, (August 29, 1933 February 26, 2014) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n-born Israeli-Canadian artist, writer, and philosopher best known for his work as a

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 ...

. He specialised in modern art works and contemporary sculpture. Etrog's works explore his first-hand experience of the

Second World War 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 renewal of sculptural traditions in modern art, such as the use of bronze as a medium; and the opposition between the mechanical and the organic. One of Canada's leading artists in the 1960s, Etrog contributed to the country's growing interest in sculpture.

Life

Born in Iaşi,

, in 1933, Etrog's formal art training began in 1945. In 1950, his family immigrated to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, where beginning in 1953 he studied at the Institute of Painting and Sculpture in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. His first solo exhibition in Tel Aviv in 1958 earned him a scholarship at the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

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 ...

(1958-1963). In 1959, a meeting with Toronto art collector Samuel Zacks led to Etrog's first Canadian solo exhibition, at Gallery Moos in Toronto. Leaving New York for Toronto in 1963, Etrog became a Canadian citizen. After moving to Florence in 1965, he began casting his sculptures at the Michelucci Foundry, in Pistoia, and would continue to do so for the rest of his career. During this time, Etrog frequently visited his family in Israel. On one of his trips he met his future wife, Lika Behar, a fashion designer, who moved to Florence to live with him. However, a car accident that left Etrog badly injured led him and Behar to leave Florence in 1967 and move to Toronto, where they married.

Career

Since the late 1950s, Etrog's work has been exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally. Etrog's work is represented in major capitals and cities all over the world. He received several important commissions, including those for

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

, Montreal; SunLife Centre, Toronto; Windsor Sculpture Garden, Windsor, Ontario;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

; and Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea. His commission for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, entitled ''Powersoul'', is his largest work. In 1966, works by Etrog, along with those of

Alex Colville David Alexander Colville, LL. D. (24 August 1920 – 16 July 2013) was a painter and printmaker who continues to achieve both popular and critical success. Early life and war artist Born in 1920 in Toronto, Ontario, Colville moved with his ...

and

Yves Gaucher Yves Gaucher, (January 3, 1934 – September 8, 2000) was an abstract painter and printmaker. He is considered a leader amongst Quebec's printmakers in the 1950s and 60s. His work has been included in the collections of public galleries s ...

, represented Canada at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 1968 Etrog was commissioned to design the

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

that was originally named the "Etrog" and later renamed the "

Genie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

". Etrog is also known for his writings and published plays, poetry and non-fiction. Of his many collaborations, the most acclaimed are his book illustrations for

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...

and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

in the late 1960s. Etrog and

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

collaborated on the publication ''Spiral'', drawn from Etrog's film of the same title which was broadcast on CBC television in 1975. Numerous reviews, articles, monographs and catalogue texts have been written about Etrog, including Pierre Restany’s comprehensive textbook published by

Prestel Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maxim ...

2001. A major exhibition of Etrog's paintings and drawings of the 1960s was exhibited in March 2008 at Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver. The

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...

presented a major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

of Etrog's work in 2013, which coincided with his eightieth birthday.

Death and legacy

Sorel Etrog died on February 26, 2014, aged 80. Since his death, Sorel Etrog's legacy and collection are officially managed by The Estate of Sorel Etrog. The Jay & Barbara Hennick Family Wellness Centre at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, includes close to 100 artworks by Sorel Etrog as part of its health and well-being intervention program.

Works

Image:KMM Etrog 02.JPG, Sorel Etrog's ''Complexes of a young lady'' (1960/62) File:Sorel Etrog Windsor, Ontario.jpg, Sorel Etrog's sculpture in

Odette Sculpture Park The Windsor Sculpture Park, formerly known as the Odette Sculpture Park, is an open space in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, that shows 35 large-scale contemporary sculptures by world-renowned artists including Elisabeth Frink, Gerald Gladstone, and Sore ...

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. File:Flight Sorel Etrog 2010 (2).JPG, Sorel Etrog's sculpture ''Flight'' was commissioned by the Pavilion of Canada,

, and is now part of the

Bank of Canada The Bank of Canada (BoC; french: Banque du Canada) is a Crown corporation and Canada's central bank. Chartered in 1934 under the ''Bank of Canada Act'', it is responsible for formulating Canada's monetary policy,OECD. OECD Economic Surveys: Ca ...

collection. File:Flight Sorel Etrog 2010.JPG, Sorel Etrog's sculpture ''Flight'' was commissioned by the Pavilion of Canada,

, and is now part of the

collection. The Hand - Sorel Etrog - 2017.jpg, Sorel Etrog's ''The Hand'' in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

(1972)

Honours

* Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

, 1994 * Chevalier of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

, Government of France, 1996 *

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

References

Bibliography

* * * Mikulinsky, Alma. ''Sorel Etrog: Life & Work'' nline publication Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2019. .

External links

The official web site of The Estate of Sorel Etrog

"Meeting of the Minds"
by Dr. Alma Mikulinsky, published online by the Art Canada Institute *

at Gallery Moos Toronto
"Etrog"
''Artnet''
Sorel Etrog
at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Etrog, Sorel 1933 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Romanian sculptors 21st-century sculptors Jewish Canadian artists Jewish Canadian writers Jewish sculptors Canadian sculptors Members of the Order of Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Genie Awards Romanian Jews Romanian emigrants to Israel Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Romanian emigrants to Canada Israeli emigrants to Canada Artists from Iași Artists from Toronto Writers from Toronto Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Canadian contemporary artists