Biography from AskART:
| A sculptor of abstract human figures, Elie Nadelman was one of the
first Beaux-Arts trained sculptors to experiment with abstraction in
figurative subjects. He applied aesthetic theories he learned in
Europe to American subjects and popular culture. His work seems a
combination of classical methods and folk art, which merge to create a
unique fusion of traditional and modern.
Eliasz Nadelman was
born on February 20, 1882, in Warsaw, Poland. The youngest of
seven children of Philip and Hannah Nadelman, Eliasz grew up in
Poland's Russian zone, where the tensions of anti-Semitism
existed. His parents decided to raise their children relatively
secular and they owned a jewelry shop.
In 1899, he graduated
from the Warsaw gymnasium and enrolled in the Warsaw School of Fine
Arts. Nadelman enlisted in the Russian Imperial army to avoid a
draft, which would have required four years of service. Returning
to Warsaw the following year, he worked on his own for two years and
then headed to Munich, drawn by German Romanticism. There he was
exposed to an array of historical styles and artworks, and at the time
his work remained in the Symbolist style. In 1904, he entered a
drawing competition and earned second prize, receiving five hundred
francs, which enabled him to move to Paris in autumn 1904.
There
he settled into the Polish art colony of Montparnasse, that included
Guillaume Apollinaire, Adolphe Basler, and Andre Salmon, as well as
Mecislas Golberg. Nadelman began to exhibit in group shows and
attracted the attention of the co-publisher of the famed La Revue Blanche,
Thadee Natanson, who then introduced Nadelman to a group of patrons and
critics that included Leo Stein, Andre Gide, and Eugene Druet.
Druet eventually gave Nadelman his first solo exhibition, featuring
thirteen plaster sculptures and 100 of his "radically simplified
drawings." His drawings "so bordered on abstraction that Nadelman
would later use them to support his claim that he, not Picasso, had
invented cubism (Hankins)." Another supporter of his work was,
Alfred Stieglitz who featured Nadelman in his October 1910 issue of Camera Work.
The
following year, Nadelman had a one-person show at the William B.
Paterson Gallery in London. This show included ten female heads
chiseled in marble and was purchased in entirety by Helena Rubenstein.
Nadelman
constantly experimented with materials, working with wood, bronze, and
marble or gilded gold. He also experimented with the scale and
sizes of the figures. His subject matter was inspired by dancers,
jugglers, and acrobats of the circus and other forms of popular
entertainment at the time. He also began to use figures dressed
in modern everyday clothing, which was unheard of at the time.
He
continued to exhibit in Paris at the 1914 Salon des Independants and
the 1913 Armory Show in New York. Nadelman enlisted in the
Russian Imperial Army at the onset of World War I, but was advised that
it would be too dangerous for him to cross Germany and instead went to
England. Helena Rubinstein commissioned him to create large
plaster reliefs for her New York salon, and on October 24, 1914,
Nadelman left England on the Lusitania, expecting to return.
He
initially disliked America, but this culture would eventually inspire
his work. Alfred Stieglitz offered him his first one-person exhibition
in New York, featuring two new plasters, a series of drawings, and
earlier sculptures and reliefs in December 1915 at his gallery,
"291." Nadelman continued to exhibit and had great success with
sold out shows of his genre subjects composed of simplified geometric
forms and stylized animal bronzes. This led to high profit,
additional portrait commissions, and a place among the most successful
modern sculptors in America.
Experimenting with hand-painted,
tubular plaster works of performers he exhibited these in a December
1917 group show to support the war-relief effort. These became "the
subject of public ridicule and scorn. . . . these spirited visions of
American pop culture seem to have been interpreted not as celebrations
of everyday life but rather as humorous spoofs or, even worse,
satirical caricatures (Hankins)."
Nadelman may have lost money
in sales during this time, but his financial situation improved when he
married Viola Speiss Flannery, a wealthy widow. His marriage,
"situated Nadelman in a world of wealth and privilege, the trappings of
which included a retinue of servants, memberships at exclusive social
clubs, a spectacular townhouse, and a carefully restored
nineteenth-century mansion overlooking the Hudson River." He
exhibited less often but still remained active. In 1925, he
exhibited his bronze and wood versions of stylized plaster genre
figures, and classical heads, that used stains, gesso, and paint.
These wooden figures were very unpopular during his lifetime, selling
only one, but now are among the most valued works of Nadelman's.
Nadelman
and his wife, Viola, started to collect folk art and material
culture. The couple traveled Europe, America, and Russia to find
pieces of vernacular art. In 1924, they began to build a home for
their collection of approximately 15,000 objects, next to their
Riverdale estate. Two years later the three-story building was
completed, and they opened the Museum of Folk and Peasant Arts to the
public.
During the Depression, the Nadelman's experienced
financial difficulties, losing their stock portfolio and losing rent on
their real estate holdings. The couple was forced to change their
elegant life style because the bank foreclosed on their townhouse in
1933, and they had to sell the Riverdale estate, which they rented and
bought back in 1936. When most artists were working for the
federal arts programs, Nadelman refused, although he did a commission
in the frieze for the Fuller Building. The
couple sold their
folk art collection to the New York Historical Society for a mere
$50,000, when they expected $350,000 to $400,000 for it. He
worked as the curator of the collection, but was dismissed in April
1939. Nadelman felt the loss of his collection, expressing, "The
dismantling of the Museum did also dismantle something in me."
"Relatively
impoverished," Nadelman had not exhibited since 1927 and became
isolated. At the time, the Abstract Expressionists were making
their mark on the art world. Fate of Nadelman's relatives in
Poland at the time of World War II spurred him to work on the war
relief service as art instructor at Bronx Veteran's Hospital from
1942-1945. He was later weakened by a heart condition that
limited his mobility.
Elie Nadelman, age 64, committed suicide on December 28, 1946.
Source:
Evelyn C. Hankins, "Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life", American Art Review, June 2003 |
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Elie Nadelman is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
New York Armory Show of 1913
Painters of Nudes
Sculptors
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