When we think of sculpture in the twentieth century, it is the remarkable strides by artists working with abstraction that first come to mind--the allusive forms of Picasso, Gonzalez, Calder, and Mir6, and later David Smith, Mark di Suvero, Donald Judd, and many others who took turns at the manipulation of form without the necessity of an accompanying narrative. But in the first half of the century, a Polish immigrant named Elie Nadelman, having inflected classical style with a sleek attenuation characteristic of Futurists such as Brancusi, ultimately made himself at home in the vernacular of American folk art, replete with narrative, and established himself as one of the century's best sculptors.

When we think of sculpture in the twentieth century, it is the remarkable strides by artists working with abstraction that first come to mind--the allusive forms of Picasso, Gonzalez, Calder, and Mir6, and later David Smith, Mark di Suvero, Donald Judd, and many others who took turns at the manipulation of form without the necessity of an accompanying narrative. But in the first half of the century, a Polish immigrant named Elie Nadelman, having inflected classical style with a sleek attenuation characteristic of Futurists such as Brancusi, ultimately made himself at home in the vernacular of American folk art, replete with narrative, and established himself as one of the century's best sculptors.

Foreword

Maxwell L. Anderson

Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of Modern Life

Formative Experiences: Poland, 1882--1903

An Aesthetic Emerges: Munich, 1904

Launching a Career: Paris, 1904--09

Statement of Aesthetic Principles: Camera Work, 1910

Paterson Gallery and Helena Rubinstein: London, 1911

Success Accelerates: Paris, 1912--14

Unintentional Immigration and Meteoric Success: New york, 1914--17

Whimsical Insouciance: Plaster Genre Figures, 1917--19

Tubular Modernity: Wood and Bronze Genre Figures, 1920--25

Nadelman as Collector: The Museum of Folk Arts

Galvano-Plastiques, 1925--27

Toward a Domestic Market: Small-Scale Papier-maches and Terra-cottas, 1928--35

The Depression and Its Consequences, 1929--35

An Art of Flux, Anxiety, and Uncertainty: Miniature Figurines, 1938--46

Notes

Exhibition History

Chronology

Selected Bibliography and Writings by Nadelman

Acknowledgments

Lenders to the Exhibition

Index