Adolph Studly Vintage Silver Gelatin Still Life Photograph of a Jacques Lipchitz Bronze Sculpture, 1944

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Adolph Studly, Swiss born American photographer. His work is kept in the Photographic Archive at The Museum of Modern Art … Read more Adolph Studly, Swiss born American photographer. His work is kept in the Photographic Archive at The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. He was known for his gallery photographs of works by artists represented primarily by the Buchholz gallery, Curt Valentin, and Stephen Radich Galleries. Artists whose work he shot include Max Beckmann, Francis Bacon, Chaim Soutine, Allan Kaprow, Clyfford Still, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Georges Rouault. He worked with Louis H. Dreyer, the pre-eminent architecture photographer in New York City.

Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, 1891-1973, was born in Lithuania and came of age in Paris during the early 20th century, where he was active in the avante-garde community of Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Chaim Soutine, and Juan Gris. Art historian H. H. Arnason, who ranked Lipchitz with Picasso and Marc Chagall, wrote, "Lipchitz, as a pure sculptor, is ...unquestionably one of the greatest sculptors of this century."
The architect Philip Johnson asked Lipchitz to make a wall sculpture to be placed on the brick chimney over a fireplace of a guest house owned by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III on West 53rd Street in New York. Lipchitz decided to develop the piece from his Pegasus designs and call it Birth of the Muses in honor of the Rockefellers' interest in the arts. In 1950 he completed the work as a bronze relief five feet high. It was installed as planned and later was acquired by Lincoln Center. He participated in the Flight portfolio (serigraph and lithograph works) organized by Varian Fry to help refugees in the hope of a new life. Eugene Berman, Alexander Calder, Adolph Gottlieb, Wifredo Lam, Joan Miro and Robert Motherwell all contributed artwork. In 1912 he exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Salon d'Automne with his first solo show held at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris in 1920. In 1922 he was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania to execute five bas-reliefs.In 1920 Lipchitz held his first solo exhibition, at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris. In his later years Lipchitz became more involved in his Jewish faith (he produced several judaica themed artworks including ones with Hebrew calligraphy). He began abstaining from work on Shabbat and put on Tefillin daily, at the urging of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Jacques Lipchitz died in Capri, Italy. His body was flown to Jerusalem, Israel for burial. His Tuscan Villa Bozio was donated to Chabad-Lubavitch in Italy and currently hosts an annual Jewish summer camp in its premises. See less