Bernard Simon (1896–1980) was a

modernist 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 ...

sculptor from Yedinitz,

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

. He came to New York in 1912 and was part of a Jewish community of artists in Brooklyn. Simon taught sculpture at the

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

Art Center, N.J., the

Educational Alliance Educational Alliance is a leading social institution that has been serving communities in New York City's Lower Manhattan since 1889. It provides multi-generational programs and services in education, health and wellness, arts and culture, and civ ...

, N.Y., 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 (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, N.Y., and at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

, N.Y. His sculptures were figurative during a period when

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

was dominant, in the 1950s. He participated in many cooperative artists organizations.

Biography

Bernard Simon (1896-1980) was raised in Yedinitz, a village in former

under Soviet control. Simon's father died when he was 12 years old. In 1912, Simon's mother sent him to New York to avoid Russia's draft for the impending

World War A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

. In the city, Simon worked at the family laundry and in sales. With his wife, Edna, he had a daughter, Ruth. ''.'' However, in the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

took hold, his businesses struggled. Simon turned to sculpture, and had a long career of teaching, making, and exhibiting, until his death in New York City in 1980.

Career

In 1938, Simon began studying with

Chaim Gross Chaim Gross (; March 17, 1902 – May 5, 1991) was an American sculptor and educator of Hungarian Jewish origin. Gross studied and taught at the Educational Alliance Art School in New York City’s Lower Manhattan. Childhood Gross was born t ...

at the Educational Alliance, New York. Simon and Gross became friends and starting in 1945, Simon spent summers at the art colony in

Provincetown Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Pr ...

, Massachusetts. In the early 1950s, Simon spent a decade as the Vice President, Treasurer, and Board Member of the New York Artists Equity Association, which was founded in 1947 by 160 artists including

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

and

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Early life Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889, in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906 at 17, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi ...

. Simon tried to "influence

he organization's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

future in protection of artists in a world where patronage no longer exists." The association opened the Broome Street Gallery and exhibited work by notable artists including

Noguchi Noguchi (野口 lit. "field entrance") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Akira Noguchi (:ja:野口明, 野口明), baseball player, older brother of Jirō Noguchi * Akiyo Noguchi (:ja:野口啓代, 野口啓代), Jap ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

, and

. By 1977, Simon had exhibited his sculpture in 40 one-man shows. He regularly exhibited in the Silvermine Guild gallery's group shows, in 1958 with Minna Hirkavy, and in 1959 alongside the realist painter, Elizabeth Barker. He showed work in the National Exhibition of the Sarasota Art Association in 1960; the outdoor exhibition at Mari Gallery (

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...

) in 1961, the Berryman Galleries in

Endicott, New York Endicott is a Village (New York), village within the town of Union, New York, Union in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 13,392 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Binghamton metropolitan area. The village is named after ...

in 1969, and in exhibitions sponsored by the artists' associations to which he belonged. Simon's sculpture, ''El Torro'', is featured in the permanent

Art Collection. His work was also shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Natural History in New York.

Memberships

* Allied Artists of America * American Society of Contemporary Artists * Artists Equity Association - Treasurer, Vice President, and member of the Board of Directors * Cape Cod Art Association * Provincetown Art Asocciation, Massachusetts * Silvermine Guild of Artists

Awards

Simon won American Contemporary Art Gallery awards in 1949 and 1952. He also received awards from the Artists Equity Association, Audubon Artists, the Painters and Sculptors Society of New Jersey, the Silvermine Guild, and Knickerbocker Artists. He is represented in a variety of private collections.

Permanent Collections

Chrysler Museum of Art The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler Jr ...

, Norfolk, Va. *

Everson Museum of Art The Everson Museum of Art ( ) in Downtown Syracuse, New York, is a major Central New York museum focusing on American art. History The museum was founded in 1897 by art historian George Fisk Comfort (who also helped found the Metropolitan Museu ...

, Syracuse, N.Y. * Fairleigh Dickenson University, N.J. * Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum, Boston, Mass. * Heritage Museum, Provincetown, Mass. * Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, Conn.

Reviews

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 ...

The New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

The New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

, Emily Gennauer *

The Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe countie ...

Gallery

File:Lover's Embrace (3), Bernard Simon.jpg, ''Lover's Embrace,'' Bernard Simon, Front Close Up File:Lover's Embrace, Bernard Simon.jpg, ''Lover's Embrace,'' Bernard Simon, Front File:Lover's Embrace.jpg, ''Lover's Embrace,'' Bernard Simon, Back

References

External links

PROVINCETOWN: THE ART COLONY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Bernard 1896 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors American sculptors Abstract expressionist artists Jewish American sculptors Moldovan sculptors Sculptors from New York (state)