Elie Nadelman (born Eliasz Nadelman; February 20, 1882 – December 28, 1946) was a Polish-American

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 ...

, draughtsman and collector of folk art.

Early years

Nadelman was born and studied briefly in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

and then visited

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in 1902 where he became interested in Classical antiquities at the

Glyptothek The Glyptothek () is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Greek and Roman sculptures (hence γλυπτο- ''glypto-'' "sculpture", from the Greek verb γλύφειν ''glyphe ...

. He lived in Paris from 1904 to 1914, closely involved with the avant-garde, exhibiting at the

Société des Artistes Indépendants The Société des Artistes Indépendants (''Society of Independent Artists'') or Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "''sans ...

and at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

from 1905 to 1908. His first solo exhibition in 1909 at the Galerie Druet, Paris, revealed a large series of plaster and bronze classical female heads and full-length standing nudes and mannered Cubist drawings; the latter purchased by Leo Stein, who had brought

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

to Nadelman's studio in 1908. Nadelman's work in this early period (1905–12) was of crucial importance for early 20th-century modern sculpture. He moved to the

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(becoming an American citizen in 1927) during the outbreak of World War I. He married Mrs. Viola Flannery, a wealthy heiress, in 1920. He and his wife assembled a large collection of folk art and erected a Museum of Folk Arts in Riverdale, N.Y. in 1925. At the same time, his own style was at times Classical, at times decorative, and at times a new kind of sophisticated urban folk art. He attempted to release large, inexpensive editions of his simple, classical, Tanagra-like small figures. All in all, Nadelman collected thousands upon thousands of folk art and added them to his vast collection.

The Depression

From the 1920s, until his death, Nadelman lived and worked in the Riverdale neighborhood of

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.Glueck, Grace
"ART: PERU'S 'NAZCA LINES' AS SEEN FROM AIR"
''

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'', February 5, 1982. Accessed May 3, 2008. "Feb. 20 marks the 100th birthday of the sculptor Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), who spent the last 26 years of his life living and working in the Riverdale section of the Bronx." Eventually, as his wealth vanished in the Depression and his work failed to interest the art world, he became more peripheral to the collectors of

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. He did not take commissions other than portraits. In 1937 the collection of the Museum of Folk Arts was sold to the

New York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museu ...

. He held his last one-man exhibition in 1930 (Paris,

Bernheim-Jeune Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris. Opened on Rue Laffitte in 1863 by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), friend of Delacroix, Corot and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon. Th ...

). In 1935 many of his plaster figures and wood-carvings were destroyed by workmen sent to remodel his studio. Nadelman packed away all his pre-1935 work in the attic and cellar of his home in Riverdale and left it there to disintegrate. After his death, in Riverdale, on 28, December, 1946, his sculpture "Man in the Open Air", was restored and reintroduced in a retrospective at

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, New York. His reputation has grown since his death, and his work is in many major museums and surveys of American art history.

Works

* ''Circus Women'' David H. Koch Theater (reproduction) * ''Dancer'' (1918)

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

, (Hartford) * ''Dancer'' (c. 1920-1922)

Jewish Museum (New York) The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unit ...

* ''Dancing Girl'' (1916–1918)

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

* ''Ideal Head'' (c. 1910)

* ''Man in the Open Air'' (c. 1915)

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

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* ''Standing Nude'' (c. 1908)

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 ...

* ''Two Nudes'' David H. Koch Theater (reproduction) * ''The Resting Stag'' (c. 1915)

* ''The Wounded Stag'' (c. 1915)

* ''Chanteuse'' (c. 1918)

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

References

Bibliography

*Busch, Julia M.
''A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s''
(The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia
Associated University Presses

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, 1974) *Haskell, Barbara, ''Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life'', Whitney Museum: New York, 2003. *Kirstein, Lincoln, ''Elie Nadelman'',

Eakins Press The Eakins Press Foundation is an American publishing house based in New York established by Leslie George Katz in 1966 and named after the painter Thomas Eakins. Since its founding in 1966, the Eakins Press Foundation has published some of the cl ...

, 1973. * Spear, Athena Tacha, "Elie Nadelman's Early Heads (1905-1911)," ''Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin,'' XXVIII, 3, Spring 1971, pp. 201–222. * Spear, Athena Tacha, "The Multiple Styles of Elie Nadelman: Drawings and Figure Sculptures ca. 1905-12," ''Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin,'' XXXI, 1, 1973–74, pp. 34–58.

External links

Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk
– McNay Art Museum (2001)
The Collection: Elie Nadelman
– The Jewish Museum
Entry at ''the-artists.org''
(2009 archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nadelman, Elie 1882 births 19th-century Polish Jews Congress Poland emigrants to the United States Congress Poland expatriates in France Jewish sculptors Modern sculptors Artists from Warsaw People from the Bronx People from Riverdale, Bronx Artists from New York City 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors National Sculpture Society members Sculptors from New York (state) 1946 suicides Suicides in New York (state)