Naomi Feinberg "Totem" Sculpture in Vermont Marble, 1960s

Sculptor Naomi Feinberg didn’t begin to explore art as a career until she was in her 30s, and in a field dominated by men, she made a name for herself among her peers and in the art world at large. Feinberg primarily worked with stone, drawing on pre-Columbian, African and Native American influences as well as Cubism. 

Born Naomi Levine in New York, she came of age during the Great Depression. When she was 17, she married writer, painter and photographer Sidney Feinberg — who himself became an award-winning book designer. Her relationship with her husband had a profound impact on Feinberg's love of visual art.

Working with Sidney in his graphic arts studio, Naomi constantly engaged with a range of art forms — there was needlework and fashion as well as ceramic sculpture before she settled into working primarily with stone. In the early 1940s, Feinberg took classes in sculpture at several institutions, including the New School, the Museum of Modern Art and the School of Visual Arts. She studied alongside notable artists José de Creeft and Lorrie Goule and later, shared a group studio space with Constructivist painter Dorothy Dehner. 

Feinberg continued to make abstract sculptures — as well as strikingly expressive sculptures that represented the human form — in limestone, marble and more throughout the 1980s and retired sometime during that decade. Her work is held in many private collections as well as the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and other institutions.

Find original Naomi Feinberg sculptures on 1stDibs.