Preliminary study for Cretan Dancer bronze sculpture
Unsigned
Graphite on tracing paper, 1930-1934
Sheet size: 6 7/8 x 7 1/8 inches
Created while the artist was woring in Paris, c. 1930
“The stylizing of the Cretan allegories, used in figures of animals such as horses and bulls, symbolizes the ancient power of the South. These figures reveal a spiritual sensuality as he strives to attain a symbol of the earth and universe endowed with musical values. If man is the center of his idea of life and nature, it is because of the laws that govern the movement of stars and history. The link binding his figures together has, in a sense, a Pythagorean harmony.”
Salvatore Quasimodo, Milan, 1967, quoted from Bush, Boris Lover-Lorski: The Language of Time, page 12.
Regarding the artist:
Boris Lovet-Lorski
Lithuanian/Russian/American
1894-1973
Sculptor, painter, and printmaker, Boris Lovet-Lorski was born in Lithuania in 1894. His mother died when he was age three. His father was affluent and owned real estate. Boris grew up in a privileged environment. He studied architecture and then fine arts at the Imperial Academy of Art in Petrograd, Russia (now Saint Petersburg). Following the revolution in 1917 and its aftermath, Boris immigrated to Boston to live with his brother. In the 1920’s, his stylized, Art Deco inspired sculptures, lithographs, and paintings proved to be popular among the American elite. He exhibited frequently, holding his first solo exhibition in Boston, 1920. In the following years, Boris exhibited in New York at Marie Sterner Gallery, Jacques Seligmann Galleries and Wildenstein and Company. He lived in Paris from 1926 to 1932 where he befriended Joseph Hecht, and was exposed to the works of Pablo Picasso, Ossip Zadkine, Contantin Brancusi and Aristide Maillol. In 1932 he returned to America where he became a citizen later in the decade.
Lovet-Lorski exhibited in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. He was a member of the Society of Independent Artists (New York), the National Academy of Design (New York), and the Lotos Club (New York), as well as several Parisian salons. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums including the Musée Luxembourg, Bibliotèque Nationale, and the Petit Palais in France, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (A more extensive list of his works in museums follows) He is considered one of the most successful and recognized sculptors of his generation. His creative influence can be seen in many of his contemporary artists.
He died in Los Angeles in 1973.
Regarding his iconic Art Deco sculptures of Cretan Dancers:
“The stylizing of the Cretan allegories, used in figures of animals such as horses and bulls, symbolizes the ancient power of the South. These figures reveal a spiritual sensuality as he strives to attain a symbol of the earth and universe endowed with musical values. If man is the center of his idea of life and nature, it is because of the laws that govern the movement of stars and history. The link binding his figures together has, in a sense, a Pythagorean harmony.”
Salvatore Quasimodo, Milan, 1967, quoted from Bush, Boris Lover-Lorski: The Language of Time, page 12.
Lovet-Lorski created sculptures of the following major figures
I.J. Paderewski, Prime Minister of Poland
Arturo Toscanini, Italian Conductor
Lilian Gish, Actress
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mrs. M. C. Niarchos, wife of Stavros Niarchos
President Abraham Lincoln
James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, First Secretary of Defense
Pope Pius XII
Dr. Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Albert Schweitzer, theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician
General Charles De Gaulle, President of the Fourth and Fifth Republic, France
John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, 1953-1959
President John F. Kennedy
Works by Lover Lorski are in the following public collections:
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Institute of Chicago
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
British Museum, London
Boston University
Brooklyn Museum
California Palace of the Legion of Honor,
Sam Francisco...