Autumn 2017 Preview

Autumn 20 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com HIGHLIGHTS Gaston Lachaise, Robert Laurent, Elie Nadelman, and William Zorach were the preeminent artistic figures of modernism in America. A New American Sculpture, 1914–1945 examines, for the first time, how this circle of American and European-born artists rose to prominence in the United States. After enjoying formative experiences in Paris in their early careers, Lachaise, Nadelman, and Zorach were forced to pick up and resettle in the United States by the start of WWI. Drawing on the differences between their unique backgrounds and their new homes, it was here that, along with American sculptor Robert Laurent, they all began to redefine the expressive potential of sculpture in one of the most turbulent eras in modern history. The exhibition evaluates how their sculpture embodied a confluence of sources, from archaism and European avant-garde to vernacular folk traditions and American popular culture, that resulted in their novel contributions. Additionally, the study offers a new perspective on the artists’ European experiences, expanding the possibilities to understand the transatlantic impulses of modern art. Assembled from public and private collections, this exhibition of sixty pieces of sculpture and a number of preparatory drawings highlights the communicative power of the human form that tied Lachaise, Nadelman, Zorach, and Laurent together. A New American Sculpture, 1914–1945: Lachaise, Laurent, Nadelman, and Zorach Through September 8, 2017 Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland, ME For more information, visit: www.portlandmuseum.org Robert Laurent (1890–1970) Hero and Leander, ca. 1944 Limestone, 27 x 39 x 20 inches Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Hamilton Easter Field Art Foundation Collection; Gift of Barn Gallery Associates, Inc., Ogunquit, Maine (1979.13.45). Gaston Lachaise (1882–1935) Two Floating Nude Acrobats, 1922 Bronze, 11½ x 2¾ x 7½ inches Private collection Courtesy of Gerald Peters Gallery