Jacques Lipchitz

Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973)

Jacques Lipchitz, the eldest son of a wealthy Jewish contractor, was born in Druskieniki, Lithuania in 1891.  His interest in modeling and drawing was evident when he was in grade school.  At the age of 18, and against the wishes of his father to become an engineer, he departed for Paris to enroll in anatomy and stone carving classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts - at the encouragement of his mother and uncle.  He also studied at the Academie Julian and the Academie Colarossi.

In 1914, Lipchitz traveled with Diego Rivera to Madrid and Majorca, where he was introduced to Picasso, Max Jacob, Juan Gris, Modigliani, and other artists in the Cubist circle.  However, his greatest influence came from his interest in art history, providing him with an unlimited source of imagery.

Lipchitz applied theories of mathematics and proportion to the concepts of Braque and Picasso, as did many second generation Cubists.  A relatively new movement in art was being created, where curves, planes, lines, and their intersections and overlapping would form new relationships.  His works display a lifetime of continuous growth and exploration, spanning the Cubism style to Mannerism, and subjects from non-committal to those that carry profound visual symbolism. Although he was a leader in innovation and experimentation, his work never embraced total abstraction and never tried to escape from the reality of art as symbolic expression.

In the mid-1920s, Lipchitz began making sculptures in a distinctively new style. His sculptures were frequently constructed from bronze and engaged new ways of exploring light and space. These new works, called transparents, provided a greater emphasis on utilizing negative space. Although unpopular at the time, the works and ideas behind the transparents became popular with Picasso and Juan Gris.