Biography

Jacques Lipchitz was a celebrated Lithuanian-born French sculptor best known for his Cubist works depicting figures, portraits, and still lifes made of bronze or stone. Lipichitz was a part of the artistic milieu in the famed Montmarte neighborhood of Paris, which included Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Juan Gris. Born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz on August 22, 1891 in Druskinikai, Lithuania to a Litvak (Lithuanian Jewish) family, the artist went on to study at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris. When faced with the Nazi occupation, he fled to the United States during World War II. Lipchitz went on to have a retrospective exhibition in 1954 which travelled from The Museum of Modern Art in New York to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and finally to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Today, his works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. Lipchitz died on May 16, 1973 in Capri, Italy.