biography of William ZORACH (1887-1966)

Birth place: Eurburick-Kovno, Lithuania

Death place: Bath, ME

Addresses: Greenwich Village, NYC, 1912-37; Brooklyn, NY/Robinhood, ME

Profession: Sculptor, painter, blockprinter, writer, teacher

Studied: apprenticed at the Morgan Lithograph Co., Cleveland, 1903-06; painting at night with Henry Keller at Cleveland Sch. Art, c.1903-05; ASL, 1908-09; NAD, 1908-09; La Palette Sch., with John Duncan Fergusson, Paris, 1909-11

Exhibited: Salon d'Automne, 1911 (exh. as "William Finkelstein"); Taylor Art Gal., Cleveland, 1912 (solo); Armory Show, 1913; S. Indp. A., 1917-18, 1922, 1929, 1941; Dayton AI, 1922 (solo); Univ. Rochester, 1924 (solo), 1941 (solo); C.W. Kraushaar, 1924 (1st solo sculp. exh.); AIC Ann., 1926-49 (Logan Prize, 1931 & 1932); WMAA biennials, 1928-66; Downtown Gal., NYC, 1931; PAFA Ann., 1933-66 (21 times; incl. Widener medal, 1962); Arch. Lg., 1937 (prize), 1958 (prize); AIC, 1938 (solo); WFNY, 1939; Dallas Mus. FA, 1945 (solo); CPLH, 1946; ASL, 1950 (retrospective) McNay AI, 1956 (solo); Bowdoin College Mus. Art, 1958 (solo), 1959-60 (retrospective), traveling to WMAA; Lowe AC; Queens College, NY, 1961; Columbus Gal. FA; Cincinnati Contemp. AC; Downtown Gal., NY (solo); Salons of America. Other awards: hon. M.F.A., Bowdoin College, 1958; citation, Bates College, 1958; hon. D.F.A., Colby College, 1961; gold medal, NIAL, 1961.

Member: Sculptors Gld. (a founder); Am. Soc. PS&G; Am. Soc. Sculptors; Cornish (NH) Colony

Work: MMA; MoMA; BMFA; BM; CMA; WMAA; AIC; PMG; Berkshire Mus.; Newark (NJ) Mus.; The Spirit of Dance," Radio City Music Hall, NYC; Shelburne (VT) Mus.; Wichita AM; Norton Gal. Art; Swope Art Gal.; Munson-Williams-Proctor Inst.; Los Angeles Mus. Art; WPA statue, U.S.P.O. Bldg., Wash., DC; figures, facade, Mayo Clinic."

Comments: Pioneer direct carver. Came to the U.S. at age four and grew up in Port Clinton, OH. He met Marguerite Thompson (see entry) while studying in Paris and they were married in NYC in Dec., 1912. Zorach did not begin exploring modernist styles until 1912, and over the next several years painted Fauvist landscapes. From 1917 until 1920, his paintings--including a group of landscapes painted in the Yosemetes ó combine Cubist fragmentation and Klee-like fantasy elements. In 1917 he carved his first wood relief and by 1922 had decided to dedicate himself primarily to sculpture. Zorach worked chiefly in stone from 1923. After 1922, his forms grew round, volumetric and monumental. Zorach described his influences to be the primitive carving of the past, particularly African art, and the sculpture of the Persians, the Mesopotamians, the archaic Greeks and the Egyptians. In his work Zorach stressed universal themes, especially the relationship between mother and child, man and woman, and children and animals. A pioneer in the revival of direct carving, he helped to popularize the technique through his teaching. Positions: sculpture instructor, ASL, NYC, 1929-59; vice-pres., NIAL, NYC. Contrib.: Magazine of Art, Creative Arts, National Encyclopaedia. Lectures: History of Sculpture from Primitive to Modern Times." Auth.: Zorach Explains Sculpture: What if Means and How It Is Made (New York: Amer. Artists Grp., 1947); Art is My Life (New York: World Publishing Co., 1967).

Sources: WW47; WW66; John I.H. Baur, William Zorach (exh. cat., WMAA, 1959); Roberta K. Tarbell, "A Catalogue RaisonnÈ of William Zorach's Carved Sculpture," 2 vols. (Ph.D dissertation, Univ. of Delaware, 1976); Joan Marter, et al., Vanguard American Sculpture, 1913-1939 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Art Gallery, 1979); Fort, The Figure in American Sculpture, 235-36 (w/repro.); Baigell, Dictionary; Craven, Sculpture in America, 576-80; A. Davidson, Early American Modernist Painting, 245-49; P&H Samuels, 548-49. "

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