Jacques Lipchitz

Born in Druskieniki, Lithuania, Jacques Lipchitz arrived in Paris in 1909 with the intention of becoming an artist. His education consisted of stints at the École des Beaux-Arts and at several private academies, followed by travels to art museums around the world. In 1911 he became fascinated with the sculpture of non-European traditions, and enthusiastically began collecting non-Western (especially African) art. His first Cubist sculptures were executed in 1915–1916, as a result of his association with modern artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). With the help of American friends, he and his family left Paris and spent the duration of World War II in the United States, where he settled permanently in 1946. During the next two decades, Lipchitz produced monumental bronze sculptures and smaller bronze editions that he exhibited and sold widely. Although he shared the Modernist belief in the primacy of material and form, he never gave up his profound interest in human figuration and naturalism.