Moissey Kogan
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Moissey Kogan (12 March 1879 – 3 March 1943) was a Bessarabian Jewish
medalist A medalist (or medallist) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, metal medallions, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Historically, medalists were typically also involved in producing their designs, and were usually e ...
, sculptor and
graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...
who spent much of his time in Paris and travelled throughout Europe. He specialised in creating sculptures and graphic art based on the female form. The Moissey Kogan Archive of the European Cultural Foundation, in
Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, collects and captures the entire work of the artist. Kogan is sometimes confused with Russian painter Moisey Kogan (1924–2001), who specialized in colorful oil paintings of Russian village life, landscapes, churches etc.


Biography


Early life

Moissey Kogan (also known as Moise, Moissej, Moshe) was born to a Jewish merchant in the town of Orhei. From an early age, he was interested in craftsmanship and acquired his artistic skills auto-didactically. In 1889, he moved to Nagybánya, an artist's colony in Hungary, where he was taught by the painter
Simon Hollósy Simon Hollósy; (2 February 1857, Máramarossziget (now Sighetu Marmației, Romania) – 8 May 1918, Técső (now Tiachiv, Ukraine) was a Hungarian painter of Armenian ancestry; original name was: Choriban (Korbuly).Gudenus János József:Ör ...
. From 1903, Kogan spent time in the Bavarian city of
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, where he enrolled at the
Munich Academy of Fine Arts The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...
, studying under the sculptor,
Wilhelm von Rümann Wilhelm von Rümann (11 November 1850 in Hanover – 6 February 1906 in Ajaccio) was a prominent German sculptor, based in Munich. Life Rümann was born in Hanover. He studied from 1872 to 1874 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (''Akademie ...
.


Artistic career

His artistic career began in 1908, when he exhibited for the first time in Paris, 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 ...
. The following year, he became one of the founding members of the
Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
group Neue Künstlervereinigung. During this period in Paris, Kogan was supported by the sculptors
Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
and
Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University P ...
. His talents were noticed by the art collector and patron
Karl Ernst Osthaus Karl Ernst Osthaus (15 April 1874, in Hagen – 25 March 1921, in Merano) was an important German patron of avant-garde art and architecture. Life Osthaus was born to a wealthy banking family, who also owned several businesses in the textile a ...
, who worked for Kogan in later years, and offered the young artist a teaching position at the
Folkwang Museum Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
in
Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...
. This situation was short-lived, and Kogan moved back to Munich, and then Paris, At the invitation of
Henry van de Velde Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium.'' ...
, he briefly taught at the
Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...
in
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
. He led a transient life during this period, and lived variously in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
as well. In Berlin, he was promoted by the prominent art-historian Max Sauerlandt and in the 1920s, Kogan's art was exhibited alongside artists from the
Berlin Secession The Berlin Secession was an art movement established in Germany on May 2, 1898. Formed in reaction to the Association of Berlin Artists, and the restrictions on contemporary art imposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65 artists "seceded," demonstrating ag ...
. Kogan mixed mainly in artistic circles, and maintained relationships with figures such as
Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj;  – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
, Jawlensky and
Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University P ...
. He was an active participant in the Salon d'Automme, where he served on the jury and was eventually elected vice-president of the sculptural department in 1925. From 1925 until his death, he varied his time between Paris and the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, where he had connections with collectors and artisans. In 1933, he ceased travel to Germany on account of the increasingly
anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
atmosphere, indeed some of his works were exhibited at the
Entartete Kunst Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...
exhibition in Berlin, 1938. From the late 1930s, Kogan began to withdraw from public life. On 11 February 1943, he was deported from
Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban commu ...
to
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
concentration camp, where he would die two weeks later. It wasn't until the 1960s that his fate was discovered.


Work

Kogan began his career working with gems, producing medals, plaques, vases, embroidery and drawings. He subsequently turned to sculpture after his time in Paris and acquaintance with the sculptors
Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University P ...
and
Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
. He became interested in the female form and the concept of grace. The majority of his work consists of small sculptures and reliefs in the neoclassical style. At first he worked with
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
, later moving to
gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...
. He very rarely worked with
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
, due to the expense of the material. Kogan did not date his work, and so it isn't possible to ascertain the years of origin today. In the 1920s, Kogan produced numerous wood and lino-cuts as well as etchings. In his drawings, he worked with chalk, coal, and pencils. Despite this versatility, Kogan infuriated the gallery owner and art-dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who insisted that he worked incredibly slowly, and very rarely finished his commissions on time. According to the art-historian Gerhart Söhn:
The fragile grace of his figures, their sensual and spiritual body language are of Hellenistic-looking cheerfulness. The inner restlessness that Kogan has driven around his life has come to rest in his art. The quiet world of his work is timeless, and yet he maintains himself alongside the great currents of contemporary sculpture. Kogan's graphic works are also devoted exclusively to female figures. The visual language is the same as in the sculptural works. The soft contours and lines of the body determine the composition of the picture, not infrequently at the expense of anatomical correctness. Even expressive expressions avoid everything that is angular.Götte, 2003
Kogan's works are in many museums, including the
Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
in Amsterdam, the
Lehmbruck Museum The Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum - Center for International Sculpture is a museum in Duisburg, Germany. Sculptures by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, after whom the museum is named, make up a large part of its collection. However, the museum has a sub ...
in Duisburg, the
Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (german: Kulturmeile). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded ...
and in the art collection of the Essen
Folkwang Museum Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
. He's also in the Moritzburg National Gallery in Halle, in the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts, The Haubrich Collection at the
Ludwig Museum Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lich ...
in Cologne and the Städtische Galerie at
Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing an art museum in Munich's '' Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between 1887 and 1891 by Gabriel von Seidl and was expa ...
in Munich. He is also in the collection of
MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...
.


Notes


References

*bin Gorion, E. (1935) Philo-Lexicon: Handbuch des jüdischen Wissens. Philo Verlag. *Götte, Gisela. "CLEMENS-SELS-MUSEUM· NEUSS." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 64 (2003): 390–393. *Fitschen, J., & Zangs, C. (2002). Moissey Kogan. Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Clemens-Sels-Museum. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kogan, Moissey Romanian sculptors Romanian illustrators Romanian Jews Artists from Paris People from Orhei Drancy internment camp prisoners 20th-century sculptors 1879 births 1943 deaths Romanian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Romanian Jews who died in the Holocaust Romanian civilians killed in World War II