Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of Crystal Cubism. In 1920 Lipchitz held his first

solo exhibition A solo show or solo exhibition is an exhibition of the work of only one artist. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photography. The creator of any artistic technique may be the subject of a solo show. Other s ...

, at

Léonce Rosenberg Léonce Rosenberg (12 September 1879 in Paris – 31 July 1947 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was an art collector, writer, publisher, and one of the most influential French art dealers of the 20th century. His greatest impact was as a supporter and promote ...

's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris. Fleeing the Nazis he moved to the US and settled in New York City and eventually Hastings-on-Hudson.

Life and career

Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipschitz, in a Litvak family, son of a

building contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

in Druskininkai,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, then within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. He studied at Vilnius grammar school and Vilnius Art School. Under the influence of his father he studied engineering in 1906–1909, but soon after, supported by his mother he moved to Paris (1909) to study at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

and the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number ...

. It was there, in the artistic communities of

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

and Montparnasse, that he joined a group of artists that included

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

and

Pablo 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 ...

as well as where his friend,

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...

, painted '' Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz''. Living in this environment, Lipchitz soon began to create Cubist sculpture. In 1912 he exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and 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 ...

with his first solo show held at

's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris in 1920. In 1922 he was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania to execute seven bas-reliefs and two sculptures. With artistic innovation at its height, in the 1920s he experimented with abstract forms he called ''transparent sculptures''. Later he developed a more dynamic style, which he applied with telling effect to bronze compositions of figures and animals. In 1924-25 Lipchitz became a French citizen through

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

and married Berthe Kitrosser. With the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

occupation of France 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and the deportation of Jews to the Nazi

death camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. T ...

, Lipchitz had to flee France. With the assistance of the American journalist Varian Fry in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, he escaped the Nazi regime and went to the United States. There, he eventually settled in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of midtown Man ...

. He was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the Third Sculpture International Exhibition held at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin ...

in the summer of 1949. He has been identified among seventy of those sculptors in a photograph ''Life'' magazine published that was taken at the exhibition. In 1954 a Lipchitz retrospective traveled from

The 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 th ...

in New York to the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

in Minneapolis and

The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

. In 1959, his series of small bronzes ''To the Limit of the Possible'' was shown at Fine Arts Associates in New York. In his later years Lipchitz became more involved in his Jewish faith, even referring to himself as a "religious Jew" in an interview in 1970. He began abstaining from work on

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stori ...

and put on

Tefillin Tefillin (; Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Te ...

daily, at the urging of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Beginning in 1963 he returned to Europe for several months of each year and worked in Pietrasanta, Italy. He developed a close friendship with fellow sculptor,

Fiore de Henriquez Fiore de Henriquez (1921-2004) was an Italian-British sculptor. Personal life and education De Henriquez was born in Trieste to a father descended from Spanish noblemen of the Habsburg court in Vienna; her mother was of Turkish and Russian orig ...

. In 1972 his autobiography, co-authored with

H. Harvard Arnason Hjorvardur Harvard Arnason (1909 – 1986) was an American academic, administrator, author and art historian focusing on modern art. His most enduring contribution was his survey of modern art, ''History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Archite ...

, was published on the occasion of an exhibition of his sculpture at 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 ...

in New York.

Death and legacy

Jacques Lipchitz died in

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has be ...

, Italy. A contingent including Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik flew with his body to Jerusalem for the burial. His Tuscan Villa Bozio was donated to

Chabad-Lubavitch Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups ...

in Italy and currently hosts an annual Jewish summer camp in its premises.

Selected works

Amedeo Modigliani - Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz - Google Art Project

*''Sailor with Guitar'' – 1917 *''Drawing of a sculpture'' – 1916 *''Bather'' – 1916–17 *''Woman with Book'' – 1918, at

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowlin ...

*''Bather, bronze'' – 1923–1925 *''Reclining Nude with Guitar'' – 1928, a prime example of Cubism *''Dancer with Veil'' – 1928 *''Dancer'' – 1929 *''The Song of the Vowels'' – (''Le Chant des Voyelles''), – 1931 cast bronze sculptures at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

;

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

;

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

;

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

; Kykuit Estate Gardens (New York),

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, and the Kröller-Müller Museum (Netherlands) *''Bull and Condor'' – 1932 *''Bust of a Woman'' – 1932 *''David and Goliath'' – 1933 *''Embracing Figures'' – 1941 *''Prometheus Strangling the Vulture'' – 1944 *'' Birth of the Muses'' 1944–1950,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

(MIT) campus, Cambridge, Massachusetts *''Rescue II''- 1947 *''Mother and Child'' – 1949 at the

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 ...

*'' John F. Kennedy Memorial, London'' - 1965. This was originally on

Marylebone Road Marylebone Road ( ) is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east–west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in three lanes in both directio ...

but from 2019 has been in the lobby of the International Students House, London at 229

Great Portland Street Great Portland Street in the West End of London links Oxford Street with Albany Street and the A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. A commercial street including some embassies, it divides Fitzrovia, to the east, from Marylebone to the west. ...

*''Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut'' ''- 1965 at the

University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 16 bachelor's degrees in 88 majors, graduate programs in 25 different fields, and a two-year pro ...

'' *''

Bellerophon Taming Pegasus ''Bellerophon Taming Pegasus'' is an outdoor sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz, depicting Bellerophon and Pegasus. It was the final sculpture worked on by Lipchitz, and was completed after his death in 1973. The work depicts the human figure of Bel ...

: Large Version'' – 1966–1977, begun in 1966 and arrived at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in pieces for assembly in 1977 *'' Peace on Earth'' – 1967–1969 *''Government of the People'' – 1976

Gallery

File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1914, Acrobat on Horseback (Acrobate à cheval).jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1914, ''Acrobat on Horseback'' (''Acrobate à cheval'') File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, Still Life, bas relief, stone.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, ''Instruments de musique'' (''Still Life''), bas relief, stone File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, Le Guitariste (The Guitar Player).jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1918, ''Le Guitariste'' (''The Guitar Player'') File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1919, Pierrot. Published in Action, Cahiers Individualistes De Philosophie Et D’art, July 1920.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1919, ''Pierrot'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1919-20, Harlequin with Clarinet.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1919–20, ''Harlequin with Clarinet'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, Harlequin with Clarinet.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, ''Harlequin with Clarinet'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, Man with Guitar.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, ''Man with Guitar'' File:Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, Portrait of Jean Cocteau.jpg, Jacques Lipchitz, 1920, ''Portrait of

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

'' File:'Mother and Child', bronze sculpture by --Jacques Lipchitz--, 1930, --Honolulu Academy of Arts--.jpg, ''Mother and Child'', 1930,

File:Lipshitz 1976 Philly.JPG, ''Government of the People'', bronze sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz, dedicated 1976, Philadelphia File:Jacques Lipchitz, Birth of the Muses (1944-1950), MIT Campus.JPG, '' Birth of the Muses'', bronze, 1944–1950, In memory of

Jerome Wiesner Jerome Bert Wiesner (May 30, 1915 – October 21, 1994) was a professor of electrical engineering, chosen by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of his Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). Educated at the University of Michigan, Wiesner was asso ...

- in the permanent collection of the

File:Spirit Enterprise 4.JPG, ''The Spirit of Enterprise'', 1960, in

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, wit ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

References

*Arnason H. Harvard and Jacques Lipchitz. ''My Life in Sculpture''. New York: Viking Press, 1972. * Hammacher, Abraham Marie, ''Jacques Lipchitz, His Sculpture'', New York, H.N. Abrams, 1961. * Hope, Henry Radford, ''The Sculpture of Jacques Lipchitz'', New York, Plantin press, printed for the trustees of the Museum of Modern Art, 1954. * Lipchitz, Jacques, ''My Life in Sculpture'', New York, Viking Press, 1972. * Stott, Deborah A., ''Jacques Lipchitz and Cubism'', New York, Garland Pub., 1978. * Van Bork, Bert, ''Jacques Lipchitz, The Artist at Work'', New York, Crown Publishers, 1966. * Wilkinson, Alan G., ''Jacques Lipchitz, A Life in Sculpture'', Toronto, Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1989. * Dr Catherine Putz, ''Jacques Lipchitz: Master Drawings'', Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 2009.

Notes

External links

*
Jacques Lipchitz, Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées

Bruce Bassett papers relating to Jacques Lipchitz, circa 1961–2001
from the Smithsonian

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

"Ask Jacques Lipchitz a Question: Jacques Lipchitz interviews during the summers of 1970–1972"
Bruce W. Bassett, interviewer and video producer. The

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

, Jerusalem donated by Hanno D. Mott, New York for the family of Jacques Lipchitz. Interactive online version published 2010
Lipchitz, Jacques, Encyclopedia Treccani.it (Italian)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipchitz, Jacques 1891 births 1973 deaths People from Druskininkai People from Grodnensky Uyezd Lithuanian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France French people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent French emigrants to the United States American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists 20th-century French sculptors American male sculptors Cubist artists French sculptors Jewish sculptors Jewish artists Lithuanian sculptors Modern sculptors People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York School of Paris 01 Académie Julian alumni People of Montmartre Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters