Ibram Lassaw (May 4, 1913 – December 30, 2003) was an Egyptian-born 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 ...

of Russian heritage, known for non-objective construction in

brazed Brazing is a metal-joining process in which two or more metal items are joined by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, with the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Brazing differs from welding in ...

metals.

Early life and education

Lassaw was born on May 4, 1913, in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, Egypt, of

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...

parents. He moved to the United States in 1921, and the family settled in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He became a United States citizen in 1928. He first studied sculpture in 1926 at the Clay Club (now SculptureCenter) with

Dorothea H. Denslow Dorothea "Miss Dee" Henrietta Denslow (December 14, 1900 – April 26, 1971) was an American sculptor, and educator. She was the founder of the Clay Club (later known as the SculptureCenter) in New York City. Biography Dorothea Henrietta Dens ...

, and later at the

Beaux-Arts Institute of Design The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (BAID, later the National Institute for Architectural Education) was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City.Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

Sophie Taeuber-Arp Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber-Arp (; 19 January 1889 – 13 January 1943) was a Swiss artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect, and dancer. Born in 1889 in Davos and raised in Trogen, Switzerlan ...

, and other artists. He also attended the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

.Philips, Lisa. ''The Third Dimension: Sculpture of the New York School''. Whitney Museum of American Art, 1984, p. 76.

Career

Influenced by his study of art history and readings in European art magazines, Lassaw began to make sculpture in the late 1920s. He was among the "small group of artists committed themselves to abstract art during the 1930s." In his work, Ibram Lassaw "replaced the monolithic solidity of cast metal with open-space constructions obtained by welding." During the mid-1930s, Lassaw worked briefly for the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal work-relief program that employed professional artists to create sculptures, paintings, crafts and design for public buildings and parks during the Great Depression in the United States. The ...

cleaning sculptural monuments around New York City. He subsequently joined the WPA as a teacher and sculptor until he was drafted into the army in 1942. Lassaw's contribution to the advancement of sculptural abstraction went beyond mere formal innovation; his promotion of

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 ...

styles during the 1930s did much to insure the growth of

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

in the United States. He was one of the founding members of the

American Abstract Artists American Abstract Artists (AAA) was founded in 1937 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major f ...

group in 1937, and served as president of the American Abstract Artists organization from 1946 to 1949. Lassaw is a sculptor who was a part of the New York School of

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 ...

during the 1940s and 1950s.

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American painter and visual artist active primarily in New York whose work has been associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. She received her ear ...

, James Brooks,

John Ferren John Millard Ferren (October 17, 1905 – July 1, 1970) was an American artist and educator. He was active from 1920 until 1970 in San Francisco, Paris and New York City. Early life John Ferren was born in Pendleton, Oregon on October 17, 1 ...

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 several other artists like Lassaw spent summers on the south fork of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. Lassaw spent summers on Long Island from 1955 until he moved there permanently in 1963.

Sources

*John Lynch
''Metal sculpture; new forms, new techniques''
p. 99; p. 135
''Scultura in America''
(Roma : Edizioni della cometa, 1990.) p. 73–82
''200 years of American sculpture''
(New York: David R. Godine in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, ©1976.) p. 181; p. 183; p. 184; p. 286

References

External links

American Abstract ArtistsIbram Lassaw Exhibition in Matera, Italy; Sculptures and works on paper 1913–2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lassaw, Ibram American people of Egyptian-Jewish descent Egyptian Ashkenazi Jews Jewish American sculptors Jewish Egyptian sculptors American people of Russian-Jewish descent Abstract expressionist artists Public Works of Art Project artists Egyptian emigrants to the United States Egyptian people of Russian descent Artists from Brooklyn Artists from New York City Artists from Alexandria 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors 1913 births 2003 deaths Burials at Green River Cemetery Sculptors from New York (state) Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (New York City) alumni 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 20th-century Egyptian Jews

Early life and education

Career

See also

Sources

References

External links