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 of the

School of Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...

and a collector of folk art. Elie Nadelman - Horse

Early years

Nadelman was born into a Jewish family in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

in 1882. He studied briefly in Warsaw and then visited

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

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 of Bavaria, Ludwig I to house his collection of Ancient Greek art, Greek and Roman art, Roman sculptures (hence γλυπτο- ''glypto-'' "sculp ...

. 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 "''sa ...

and at the Salon d'Automne 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 Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

to Nadelman's studio in 1908. Nadelman's work in this early period (1905–1912) was of crucial importance for early 20th-century modern sculpture. He moved to the United States (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

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

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

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 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

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. 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. He held his last one-man exhibition in 1930 (Paris, Bernheim-Jeune). 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 December 28, 1946, his sculpture "Man in the Open Air", was restored and reintroduced in a retrospective at

MOMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, 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 Impressionism, Impressionist paintings, Hudson Riv ...

, (Hartford) * ''Dancer'' (c. 1920-1922) Jewish Museum (New York) * ''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, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

* ''Ideal Head'' ()

* ''Man in the Open Air'' ()

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

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* ''Standing Nude'' ()

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

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

* ''The Wounded Stag'' ()

* ''Chanteuse'' () Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 1974) *Haskell, Barbara, ''Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life'', Whitney Museum: New York, 2003. *Kirstein, Lincoln, ''Elie Nadelman'', Eakins Press, 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 Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United States Congress Poland expatriates in France Jewish American sculptors American modern sculptors Artists from Warsaw Artists from the Bronx People from Riverdale, Bronx 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors National Sculpture Society members Sculptors from New York (state) 1946 suicides 1946 deaths Suicides in New York (state)