- Artist/Maker:
- Jacques Lipchitz
- Bio:
- American and French, b. Lithuania, 1891-1973
- Title:
- The Sacrifice
- Date:
- 1949-57
- Medium:
- Bronze
- Dimensions:
- 49 1/2 x 24 1/4 × 24 1/4 in. (125.7 x 61.6 × 61.6 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Albert A. List
- Accession Number:
- JM 16-65
- Copyright:
- © The Estate of Jacques Lipchitz, courtesy, Marlborough Gallery
Not On View
Lithuanian-born Jacques Lipchitz arrived in Paris in 1909, and was confronted by an art world dominated by the stylistic revolution of Cubism. Three years later, he was introduced to Picasso and other Cubist painters and sculptors. His rapid absorption of the formal elements of that movement, including the influences of "primitive" art, led to his early successful sculptures of 1915-19, considered the first to use Cubist syntax. Those sculptures have been accorded a seminal place in the art of that period. A number of scholars have observed the humanizing aspects and personal immediacy in Lipchitz's manipulation of Cubism, a style that, in the hands of lesser artists, can become frigid or decorative.
For nearly a decade, Lipchitz developed new formal approaches to sculpture, including experimentation with solids and voids, and large scale works. By the mid-1930s, his earlier austere, classically oriented formalism gave way to equally masterful works exhibiting expressionist modeling and a decidedly baroque sensibility. Likewise, his earlier focus on pleasurable themes from modern life - such as acrobats, harlequins, and still lifes - became transformed to heroic, often tragic themes from the Bible and classical mythology. These themes were often concerned with the major issues of man's struggle with the world, with others, and with himself. Lipchitz sought to distill the profundity of such subjects in a monumental scale while simultaneously striving for technical innovation.
One can best appreciate The Sacrifice (which Lipchitz considered his major work) by understanding its predecessors within his oeuvre-formally, thematically, and personally. The work takes a place in Lipchitz's ongoing focus on epic struggle, beginning with his Jacob Wrestling with the Angel of the early 1930s. The transformation of the biblical theme into a mythological one with his Prometheus and the Vulture series (1933-37) emerged in response to the oppressive threat of Nazism, which ultimately forced Lipchitz to flee France and seek refuge in America. Although Lipchitz had limited contact with the painters and sculptors of New York's Abstract Expressionist School-such as Mark Rothko and David Smith - there ware nevertheless some striking connections between them. In fact, in 1946 the critic Clement Greenberg connected the scale, "bombast," and ambition of Lipchitz to then-emerging painter Jackson Pollock. The Abstract Expressionists and Lipchitz shared an emotive handling of media and were obsessed with classical and tribal myths. These attributes and their common focus on the tragic, changeless nature of human psychology were no doubt a response to the Zeitgeist of the epoch: the devastating realities of World War II and the Holocaust.
The iconographic precursor for The Sacrifice is Lipchitz's technically intricate and masterful The Prayer (1943) where he alludes to the curious, "primitive," and sometimes controversial ritual of kapparot-the custom of symbolically transferring personal sins onto an animal. The Prayer actually shows a disemboweled fowl, spewing forth guilty as well as innocent victims. The latter serves as a metaphor for the suffering of the Jewish people at that time.
The Sacrifice of 1949-57expands upon this theme from a more optimistic perspective-in response to the end of World War II and the successful struggle to found the State of Israel. The lamb, a symbol that Lipchitz considers Christian, refers to his hopes for a peaceful coexistence between Judaism and Christianity. While the fragmented nature of The Prayer reflects his technical difficulty during its execution as it symbolizes the profoundly hopeless moments of World War II, the artist has approached The Sacrifice with a forceful unity of spirit and majestic amplitude of form that express his renewed affirmation of life.
For nearly a decade, Lipchitz developed new formal approaches to sculpture, including experimentation with solids and voids, and large scale works. By the mid-1930s, his earlier austere, classically oriented formalism gave way to equally masterful works exhibiting expressionist modeling and a decidedly baroque sensibility. Likewise, his earlier focus on pleasurable themes from modern life - such as acrobats, harlequins, and still lifes - became transformed to heroic, often tragic themes from the Bible and classical mythology. These themes were often concerned with the major issues of man's struggle with the world, with others, and with himself. Lipchitz sought to distill the profundity of such subjects in a monumental scale while simultaneously striving for technical innovation.
One can best appreciate The Sacrifice (which Lipchitz considered his major work) by understanding its predecessors within his oeuvre-formally, thematically, and personally. The work takes a place in Lipchitz's ongoing focus on epic struggle, beginning with his Jacob Wrestling with the Angel of the early 1930s. The transformation of the biblical theme into a mythological one with his Prometheus and the Vulture series (1933-37) emerged in response to the oppressive threat of Nazism, which ultimately forced Lipchitz to flee France and seek refuge in America. Although Lipchitz had limited contact with the painters and sculptors of New York's Abstract Expressionist School-such as Mark Rothko and David Smith - there ware nevertheless some striking connections between them. In fact, in 1946 the critic Clement Greenberg connected the scale, "bombast," and ambition of Lipchitz to then-emerging painter Jackson Pollock. The Abstract Expressionists and Lipchitz shared an emotive handling of media and were obsessed with classical and tribal myths. These attributes and their common focus on the tragic, changeless nature of human psychology were no doubt a response to the Zeitgeist of the epoch: the devastating realities of World War II and the Holocaust.
The iconographic precursor for The Sacrifice is Lipchitz's technically intricate and masterful The Prayer (1943) where he alludes to the curious, "primitive," and sometimes controversial ritual of kapparot-the custom of symbolically transferring personal sins onto an animal. The Prayer actually shows a disemboweled fowl, spewing forth guilty as well as innocent victims. The latter serves as a metaphor for the suffering of the Jewish people at that time.
The Sacrifice of 1949-57expands upon this theme from a more optimistic perspective-in response to the end of World War II and the successful struggle to found the State of Israel. The lamb, a symbol that Lipchitz considers Christian, refers to his hopes for a peaceful coexistence between Judaism and Christianity. While the fragmented nature of The Prayer reflects his technical difficulty during its execution as it symbolizes the profoundly hopeless moments of World War II, the artist has approached The Sacrifice with a forceful unity of spirit and majestic amplitude of form that express his renewed affirmation of life.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.