Sorel Etrog, (August 29, 1933 February 26, 2014) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n-born Israeli-Canadian artist, writer, and primarily, a

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 ...

. He specialized in modern art works and contemporary sculpture. Etrog's works explore his first-hand experience of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the renewal of sculptural traditions in modern art, such as the use of bronze as a medium, and the opposition between the mechanical and the organic. One of Canada's leading artists in the 1960s, Etrog contributed to the country's growing interest in sculpture.

Life

Born in Iaşi,

, in 1933, Etrog's formal art training began in 1945. In 1950, his family immigrated to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, where beginning in 1953 he studied at the Institute of Painting and Sculpture in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. His first solo exhibition in Tel Aviv in 1958 earned him a scholarship at the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

(1958-1963). In 1959, a meeting with Toronto art collector Samuel Zacks led to Etrog's first Canadian solo exhibition, at Gallery Moos in Toronto. Leaving New York for Toronto in 1963, Etrog became a Canadian citizen. After moving to Florence in 1965, he began casting his sculptures at the Michelucci Foundry, in Pistoia, and would continue to do so for the rest of his career. During this time, Etrog frequently visited his family in Israel. On one of his trips he met his future wife, Lika Behar, a fashion designer, who moved to Florence to live with him. However, a car accident that left Etrog badly injured led him and Behar to leave Florence in 1967 and move to Toronto, where they married.

Career

Since the late 1950s, Etrog's work has been exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally. Etrog's work is represented in major capitals and cities all over the world. He received several important commissions, including those for

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

, Montreal; SunLife Centre, Toronto; Windsor Sculpture Garden, Windsor, Ontario;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

; and Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea. His commission for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, entitled ''Powersoul'', is his largest work. In 1966, works by Etrog, along with those of

Alex Colville David Alexander Colville (August 24, 1920 – July 16, 2013) was a Canadian painter and printmaker. Early life and war artist David Alexander Colville was born on August 24, 1920 in Toronto, Ontario, the second son of Scottish immigrant D ...

and Yves Gaucher, represented Canada at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. In 1968 Etrog was commissioned to design the

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

that was originally named the "Etrog" and later renamed the "

Genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

". Etrog is also known for his writings and published plays, poetry and non-fiction. Of his many collaborations, the most acclaimed are his book illustrations for

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...

and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

in the late 1960s. Etrog and

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

collaborated on the publication ''Spiral'', drawn from Etrog's film of the same title which was broadcast on

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

television in 1975. Numerous reviews, articles, monographs and catalogue texts have been written about Etrog, including

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (22 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning ...

’s comprehensive textbook published by

Prestel Prestel was the Brand#Brand names and trademark, brand name of a videotex service launched in the UK in 1979 by BT Group#Post Office Telecommunications, Post Office Telecommunications, a division of the British Post Office Limited#History, Po ...

2001. A major exhibition of Etrog's paintings and drawings of the 1960s was exhibited in March 2008 at Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver. The

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

presented a major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

of Etrog's work in 2013, which coincided with his eightieth birthday. From August 2021 to May 2022, Art Windsor Essex showcased Etrog's history of graphic work (drawings, paintings, prints) in their exhibition, ''Links as Bones: Sorel Etrog and the Fragile Body'.''

Death and legacy

Sorel Etrog died on February 26, 2014, aged 80. Since his death, Sorel Etrog's legacy and collection are officially managed by The Estate of Sorel Etrog. The Jay & Barbara Hennick Family Wellness Centre at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, includes close to 100 artworks by Sorel Etrog as part of its health and well-being intervention program.

Works

File:KMM Etrog 02.JPG, Sorel Etrog's ''Complexes of a young lady'' (1960/62) File:Sorel Etrog Windsor, Ontario.jpg, Sorel Etrog's sculpture in Odette Sculpture Park Windsor

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. File:Survivors Are Not Heroes Sorel Etrog (2).JPG, '' Survivors Are Not Heroes'' (1967) File:Flight Sorel Etrog 2010 (2).JPG, Sorel Etrog's sculpture ''Flight'' was commissioned by the Pavilion of Canada,

, and is now part of the

Bank of Canada The Bank of Canada (BoC; ) is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation and Canada's central bank. Chartered in 1934 under the ''Bank of Canada Act'', it is responsible for formulating Canada's monetary policy,OECD. OECD Economic Surve ...

collection. File:The Hand - Sorel Etrog - 2017.jpg, Sorel Etrog's ''The Hand'' in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

(1972)

Honours

* Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

, 1994 * Chevalier of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

, Government of France, 1996 *

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

References

Bibliography

* * * Mikulinsky, Alma. ''Sorel Etrog: Life & Work'' nline publication Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2019. .

External links

The official web site of The Estate of Sorel Etrog

"Meeting of the Minds"
by Dr. Alma Mikulinsky, published online by the Art Canada Institute *

at Gallery Moos Toronto
"Etrog"
''Artnet''
Sorel Etrog
at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Etrog, Sorel 1933 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Romanian sculptors 21st-century sculptors Jewish Canadian sculptors Jewish Canadian writers Jewish Romanian sculptors Jewish Canadian painters Jewish Romanian painters 20th-century Canadian sculptors Members of the Order of Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Genie Awards Romanian emigrants to Israel Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Romanian emigrants to Canada Israeli emigrants to Canada Artists from Iași Artists from Toronto Writers from Toronto Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Canadian contemporary artists