Reuben Nakian (born August 10 1897, College Point, New York - died December 4 1986,
Stamford, ConnecticutStamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 118,475, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England Stamford is part of the New York metropolitan area.-Sister...
) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sculptor and
teacherIn education, a teacher is a person who educates others. A teacher who educates an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor....
.
Nakian's recurring themes are from Greek and Roman mythology. Noted works include
Leda and the Swan,
The Rape of Lucrece,
Hecuba, and
The Birth of Venus. He was also commissioned to create portraits of Roosevelt's cabinet in the 1930s.
In 1915 Nakian studied at the Independent School of Art in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
as well as the
Robert Henri SchoolRobert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
with Homer Boss and A.S.
Reuben Nakian (born August 10 1897, College Point, New York - died December 4 1986,
Stamford, ConnecticutStamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 118,475, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England Stamford is part of the New York metropolitan area.-Sister...
) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sculptor and
teacherIn education, a teacher is a person who educates others. A teacher who educates an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor....
.
Nakian's recurring themes are from Greek and Roman mythology. Noted works include
Leda and the Swan,
The Rape of Lucrece,
Hecuba, and
The Birth of Venus. He was also commissioned to create portraits of Roosevelt's cabinet in the 1930s.
In 1915 Nakian studied at the Independent School of Art in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
as well as the
Robert Henri SchoolRobert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
with Homer Boss and A.S. Baylinson. Later he studied at the
Art Students League of New YorkThe Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
and was apprenticed to
Paul ManshipPaul Howard Manship was a prominent American sculptor of the 20th century.Paul Manship began his art studies at the St. Paul School of Art in Minnesota. From there he moved to Philadelphia and continued his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts...
.
Nakian met and befriended painters
Arshile GorkyArshile Gorky , was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism.-Biography:...
and
Willem de KooningWillem de Kooning was an abstract expressionist artist, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to variously as Abstract expressionism, Action painting, and the New York School...
in the 1930s and
Marsden HartleyMarsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist of the early 20th century. Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, USA, where his English parents had settled. He began his art training at the Cleveland Institute of Art after the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1892...
and
Marcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
in the 1940s.
Poet
Frank O'HaraFrancis Russell O'Hara was an American poet who, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Barbara Guest and Kenneth Koch, was a key member of the New York School of poetry.-Life:...
was the curator of a major Reuben Nakian retrospective at New York City's
Museum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been singularly important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the...
in 1966 where the artist was also exhibited in 1930. In the exhibition's catalog, O'Hara notes,
Nakian is unrepressed, un-neurotic, unabashed in his approach to sensuality, however tortuous his esthetic commitment, and whether his subject be death, bestiality, or Arcadian dalliance. This explicitness gives the "Nymph and Satyr" plaques a marvelous joy and ease, the "Europa" terra-cottas a voluptous dignity, and the "Leda and the Swan" drawings an almost comic abandon. Unlike most sexually oriented images in modern art, from Auguste RodinAuguste Rodin[p] was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
to Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, one finds no guilt or masochism in a Nakian. It is outgoing and athletic even in its releases and defeats: the satyr, the bull, the swan, the goat are each circumvented or absorbed by the goddess of his choice in the most choice of circumstances, that of his own choosing, like the amorous "dying" of the Elizabethans or the Metamorphoses of OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
.
Work
Nakian's work is in the collections of DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park
http://www.decordova.org/decordova/sculp_park/nakian.htm,
Fogg Art MuseumOpened to the public in 1896, the Fogg Museum is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. The Fogg joins the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museum....
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/collections/servlet/webpublisher.WebCommunication?ia=codetail&ic=basic&oid=11581&sq=1&tr=1&tech=&name=Nakian,%20Reuben&title=&objtype=&medspt=&dtfrom=&dtto=¢ury=&credit=&cult=&accnum=&pic=yes&aid=2938&icurrpage=1&isrc=singleartist,
Smithsonian American Art MuseumThe Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_artworks1.cfm?StartRow=1&ConID=3486&format=short&db=onlyart&LastName=&FirstName=&Title=&Accession=&Keyword,
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThe Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum located in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall and designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was conceived as the United States' museum of contemporary and modern art...
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/search.asp?Artist=Reuben+Nakian&Title=&Date=&Nationality=&School=,
Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened its doors on October 21, 1959 and is one of the best-known museums in New York City and one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks...
,
Whitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
,
Los Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=browse&dept=prints&method=artist&searchtype=2&term=Nakian%2C%20Reuben,
Nassau County Museum of ArtThe Nassau County Museum of Art is located in the former Clayton estate in Roslyn Harbor, New York, United States. First established when the estate was turned over to Nassau County in 1969 and then privatized in 1989, it has become the most-attended suburban art museum in the country, as well as...
http://www.nassaumuseum.com/outdoor/outdoor_sculpturegallery.htm, Neuberger Museum of Art,
Oklahoma City Museum of ArtThe Oklahoma City Museum of Art is a museum located in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The museum features visiting exhibits; original selections from its own collection; a theater showing a variety of foreign, independent, and classic films each week; and a...
,University of Arizona Museum of Art,
University of Michigan Museum of ArtThe University of Michigan Museum of Art, or UMMA, as it is known, is a dynamic meeting place for the arts, bridging campus and community...
http://images.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?cc=musart;page=browse;key=musart_asn;c=musart;back=back1177935856;value=Nakian%2C%20Reuben;exact=1, Guilford College Art Gallery
http://www.guilford.edu/artgallery/Collect/Artlist/N/Nakian/Nakian.htm,Saint Joseph College Art Gallery,
Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtThe Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its neo-classical architecture and extensive collection of Asian art....
, Sheldon Art Gallery
http://www.sheldonartgallery.org/collection/search.html?topic=list&search_var=Artist&clct_artist_full_name=Reuben+Nakian&clct_id=6217,
Walker Art CenterThe Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
http://collections.walkerart.org/item/agent/471,
National Gallery of AustraliaThe National Gallery of Australia is the premier art gallery and museum in Australia, holding over 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Government of Australia as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
http://www.nga.gov.au/International/Catalogue/Default.cfm?MnuID=SRCH&GalID=ALL&ArtistIRN=22576&Alpha=N
,
Portland Art MuseumThe Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and 7th oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in the...
,
Boca Raton Museum of ArtThe Boca Raton Museum of Art is located at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Florida in Mizner Park. It houses works of art by a number of the great masters.-About:...
The sculpture "Voyage to Crete" can be found in the orchestra level of the David H. Koch Theater at
Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsLincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City.-Tenant organizations:Lincoln Center serves as home for 12 arts organizations:*Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center...
in New York City.
Teaching
Nakian taught at Newark's Fine Arts and Industrial Arts College and at
Pratt InstitutePratt Institute is a specialized private college in New York City with campuses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Utica, New York. Pratt is one of the leading art schools in the United States and offers programs in art, architecture, fashion design, illustration, interior design, digital arts, creative...
in New York City. Among Nakian's students from his days teaching at the Newark School of Fine Arts are sculptor Larry McCabe and painter/sculptor
Anthony TrianoAnthony Thomas Triano was a painter, sculptor, illustrator and teacher. His works feature natural forms, especially the human form, and tend toward the abstract...
.
Books
External links