Lipchitz, Jacques

Born in Druskininkai (Lithuania) on 22 August to a Jewish family, under the name of Chaim Jacob Lipchitz.

Embarks on his studies at the Bialystok technical college in Poland.

Moves to Paris and decides to devote himself to sculpture despite his parents’ reluctance. Enrols in the School of Fine Arts.

Continues his training at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi. Frequently visits the Louvre Museum, where he develops his interest in primitive art, and archaic Greek, Egyptian and Roman sculpture.

After being exempted from military service in Russia, he returns to Paris, where he comes into contact with Cubism. Exhibits at the Salon National des Beaux-Arts and the Salon d’Automne.

Meet the artists Diego de Rivera and Pablo Picasso. His work begins to attract praise, including from Auguste Rodin. Creates his first pieces belonging to the protocubist period.

Travels to Spain with Diego de Rivera, where he creates several sculptures inspired by Mediterranean life and meets Ramón Gomez de la Serna, who later dedicates a chapter to him entitled “Lipchitzmo” in his book Ismos, published in 1931.

Creates his so-called “detachable” sculptures, which Lipchitz himself will later destroy. Makes the first cubist sculptures of his mature period, such as The head (La Tête).

Mingles with the likes of Amedeo Modigliani, Max Jacob and Jean Cocteau. From April to the end of September, he moves to Beaulieu-lès Loches with Juan Gris, whom he already knew previously, forming a close personal and professional relationship with him. During this period, he experiments with carved and polychrome relief work.

The first solo exhibition of Lipchitz’s work is presented at the Léonce Rosenberg gallery in Paris.

Meets American patron Albert C. Barnes, who buys several sculptures from him and commissions five bas-relief pieces for the front of the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania.

Breaks away from Cubism. Focuses on the themes of circus and music to conceive his “Transparents”.

Begins working with Jeanne Bucher and her Galerie de la Renaissance.

Receives a commission from Viscount Charles de Noailles for the gardens of one of his properties, which will be the artist’s first outdoor composition – Joy of Life – awakening in him the impulse to undertake large-scale works.

The deaths of his friend Juan Gris, his father and his sister that same year plunge him into a deep depression, from which he manages to emerge thanks to his work on the piece The couple (Le Couple), later known as The shout (Le Cri).

The first major retrospective exhibition of his work is held at the Galerie de la Renaissance: Cent sculptures par Jacques Lipchitz. His iconography opens up to biblical and mythological themes, as well as to the figures of mother and son.

Presents the sculpture David and Goliath (David et Goliath) at the Salon des indépendants.

The gallery owner introduces him to the then director of MoMA Alfred Barr, who after visiting his Parisian workshop acquires a bronze sculpture for the museum.

The French Government, which had granted him citizenship a few years earlier, commissions him to create a monumental sculpture for the entrance to the science pavilion of the Paris Universal Exhibition, in which Picasso shows his Guernica.

Le Petit Palais dedicates a room to his sculptures on the occasion of the exhibition Les Maîtres de l’art indépendant 1895–1937.

After the occupation of Paris by the Nazis, he leaves the French capital and settles in Toulouse, where he begins working on Mother and Son (Mère et enfant II), which reflects his desperation in the face of the Second World War.

With the help of important American friends, such as Alfred Barr, he emigrates to New York.

His first solo exhibition is organised in the USA , in his dealer’s gallery: Buchholz Gallery, where he will also show his work over the following years. He continues to work, inspired by themes from Greek mythology.

Works on a sculpture commissioned by Rio de Janeiro’s Department of Health and Education, Prometheus strangling the vulture (Promethée étranglant le vautour), the same theme he had presented at the science pavilion of the ‘37 Paris Universal Exhibition, which will be a recurring motif in his career.

The Galerie Maeght in Paris hosts an important exhibition of his work, and the artist is made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour. He later moves to the US permanently.

Together with prestigious artists of the time, such as Matisse, Braque, Chagall and Léger, among others, he is part of an artistic project for the church of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grâce.

He creates The Birth of the Muses (La Naissance des muses), a large-scale relief piece designed for the home of John D. Rockefeller III’s wife in New York. Before its installation, it is presented at the MoMA and at the Buchholz gallery.

The exhibition Lipchitz. Works 1914–1950 travels to several American museums: Portland Art Museum, San Francisco Art Museum and Cincinnati Art Museum.

His workshop catches fire and many of his works are destroyed, including his studies for the commissions of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grâce and Fairmont Park. He exhibits several sculptures in the French pavilion of the XXVI Venice Biennale. He receives the George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts in Philadelphia for Prometheus Strangling the Vulture (1944–1953).

A retrospective exhibition is held at MoMA in New York, in collaboration with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Arts in Philadelphia awards him the Alfred G. B. Steel Award for Mother and Son (Mère et enfant, 1949–1954).

He is presented with the Creative Arts Award by Brandeis University. Jacques Lipchitz, a travelling retrospective organised by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, goes to Otterlo, Basel, Dortmund, Brussels and London. Several museums host the exhibition Lipchitz: Städtische Galerie in Munich, École des Baux-Arts in Montréal, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina (Canada), Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Art Gallery of Ontario

The Musée National d’Art Moderne (Paris) devotes a major retrospective exhibition to his work, which will then travel to the Tate Gallery in London.

The exhibition Juan Gris-Jacques Lipchitz: A Friendship is held at the M. Knoedler & Co Gallery in New York. He exhibits sculptures and drawings at a retrospective held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Travels to Italy for the first time and starts working at the Tommasi foundry in Pietrasanta, near Carrara. Begins work on the Images of Italy series of 25 sculptures.

An important retrospective of his work is organised, which goes to several venues around North American: University of California, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Forth Worth Art Center; Walker Art Center; Des Moines Art Center; and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The exhibition 157 Bronze Sketches, 1912–1962 opens at the Otto Gerson Gallery, which will also travel to the Museum of Modern Art, as well as South America, Australia and New Zealand.

President Lyndon B. Johnson commissions him to design the medallion for the Presidential Scholar Awards. He exhibits Between Heaven and Earth (1958) at the Documenta festival in Kasse . He shows his work at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. An exhibition of his sculptures and cubist relief work is held at the Phillips Collection in Washington, and a retrospective is organised at Boston University, an institution that the following year presents him with an award for cultural merits.

Receives the Gold Medal from the New York Academy of Arts and Letters.

The exhibition Lipchitz: The Cubist Period 1913–1930 opens at the Otto-Gerson Gallery.

The Neuen Berliner Kunstverein for the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin organises a retrospective, which will travel to several German and Austrian cities.

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem presents an exhibition in honour of the artist for his 80th birthday and to celebrate the donation made by his brother Rubin consisting of more than a hundred sculptural sketches in bronze. Lipchitz takes advantage of this trip to choose the location for his sculpture Our Tree of life on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.

Jacques Lipchitz. His Life in Sculpture opens, a major exhibition organised by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that coincides with the publication of his autobiography, My Life in Sculpture.

Completes the definitive model for the sculpture on Mount Scopus. Dies in Capri (Italy) on 26 May and is buried in the Har HaMenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem. His will stipulates that his plaster and terracotta models may not be melted after his death, and that they will remain in the possession of the Jacques & Yulla Lipchitz Foundation, an institution responsible for distributing them to different institutions.