Jacques Lipchitz

(1891 - 1973)

Biography

Jacques (Chaim Jakov) Lipchitz was the oldest of six sons. He attended a school of commerce in Bialystok, just as his father had wished. In 1906, he arrived in Vilnius to study engineering, but at the same time he also enrolled at the Vilnius School of Drawing. In 1909, he learned about La Ruche, and left for Paris, where he started signing his works in French: ‘Jacques Lipchitz’. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he left for the USA, and settled in New York. In 1961, he returned to Europe, travelled a lot, visited Israel, and later settled in Italy. Lipchitz often remembered Lithuania: ‘I would love to visit my home country before I leave this world. I would love to spend some time in Vilnius, where I attended school. I love Vilnius, I remember every corner of the city, and carry memories of it with me in my heart’ (letter to Vladas Vildžiūnas, 20 February 1972, Vilnius University Library).

Style

Architecture, nature, literature, and the primitive art of Africa and the Near East, including Byzantine icons and Renaissance art, all served as sources of inspiration and ideas for Lipchitz. His friendship with Pablo Picasso served as an impetus to experiment with Cubism, and the composition The Meeting (1913) and especially his sculpture Pierrot with Clarinet (1919) represent the early period of his creative life. His sculptures took on ever rounder and sleeker forms after 1930. When making a sculpture, he focused mainly on the balance of light and shade, because ‘light is what gives a sculpture mass and form’ (J. Lipchitz, 1972, My Life in Sculpture, 45). He spent a lot of time preparing each sculpture. He would draw many sketches, mould models in clay and plaster, and make lithographs on the theme of the sculpture he was about to make. If he liked a particular theme, he would work on it for years.

Lipchitz improvised freely on the themes of music, love and the family. He moulded still-lifes, and human figures with guitars, mandolins and clarinets, including female nudes and heads. In his mature period, he often depicted conflict situations: the struggle between good and evil, the victory of light over darkness, and the triumph of knowledge over ignorance. He used stories from the Old Testament and Classical mythology to depict topical themes of his times. Heroes from ancient myths and characters from Holy Scriptures tell the story of the wars of the 20th century, the Holocaust, and political scandals. Lipchitz had a good understanding of the situation in the world, and cared about the future of humanity. As early as 1935, he said: ‘My Jewish skin tingles for my scattered and persecuted blood-brothers. But the monster we are killing is not only anti-Semitism, it is everything else which stops man from moving forward’ (1935, The American Magazine of Art, 28:458).

Today, bronze and stone sculptures by Lipchitz embellish numerous squares and parks in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Kansas, Miami, St Louis, Honolulu, Otterlo, and many other cities in the world. His sculptures, lithographs and drawings enrich private collections and the permanent exhibitions of world-famous museums.

Information source:

Litvak Art in Private Lithuanian Collections. Compiler Gradinskaite, V. (2015). Vilnius: Lewben Art Foundation, Lithuanian Expatriate Art Foundation, Jerusalem of the North