Sculpting a Life: Chana Orloff between Paris and Tel Aviv

441 Pages·2023·18.106 MB·English

by  Paula J. Birnbaum

S C U L P T I N G A L I F E

Sculpting a Life
Chana Orloff between
Paris and Tel Aviv
Paula J. Birnbaum
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Waltham, Massachusetts
Brandeis University Press
2022 © Paula J. Birnbaum
All rights reserved
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Designed by Richard Hendel
Typeset in Miller and Bunday Sans by Rebecca Evans
For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book,
contact Brandeis University Press, 415 South Street, Waltham MA 02453,
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- publishing Data
Names: Birnbaum, Paula, author.
Title: Sculpting a life: Chana Orloff between Paris and Tel Aviv / Paula J. Birnbaum.
Description: Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, [2023] |
Series: HBI series on Jewish women
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “The first biography of sculptor Chana Orloff, and the first to include
stories from her unpublished ‘memoir,’ which focus on the artist’s early life
in Ukraine, her family’s move to Palestine and Orloff’s life there (1905–1910),
and her subsequent years between Paris and Tel Aviv” —Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022037390 | ISBN 9781684581139 (cloth) | ISBN 9781684581146
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Orloff, Chana, 1888–1968. | Sculptors—Israel—Biography. |
Women sculptors—Israel—Biography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY /
Artists, Architects, Photographers | ART / Sculpture & Installation
Classification: LCC NB979.O65 B57 2023 | DDC 730.92 [B]—dc23/eng/20220810
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022037390
5 4 3 2 1
For Neil, Jordan, and Mariel

C O N T E N T S
Introduction ix
1 Ukrainian Beginnings, 1888–1905 1
2 Moving to the Promised Land, 1905–1907 16
3 Becoming a New Hebrew Woman, 1907–1910 30
4 Paris:
From Haute Couture to Avant- Garde, 1910–1913 43
5 Forging a Career at the Onset of War, 1913–1916 67
6 Orloff during Wartime:
Amazon, Mother, and Widow, 1916–1919 88
7 Portraitist of Montparnasse, 1919–1925 122
8 Villa Seurat:
Building a Studio and a Community, 1926–1929 148
9 Transatlantic Travel and Networks, 1929–1930 178
10 From Paris to Tel Aviv:
The Jewish Art World in the Pre- State, 1930s 197
11 Occupation and Escape, 1938–1942 228
12 Exile and Return, 1942–1948 252
13 “Israeli Artist of the École de Paris,” 1948–1968 279
14 Conclusion: Legacy in Israel and France 313
Acknowledgments 323
Notes 327
Selected Bibliography 381
Illustration Credits 389
Index 391
Color plates follow page 172

I N T R O D U C T I O N
I first encountered Chana Orloff’s (1888–1968) work when I was re-
searching my book Women Artists in Interwar France: Framing Femi-
ninities (2011). Standing in her studio in Paris, I was captivated by the
rows of plaster, wood, marble, and bronze portrait busts lining the
wooden shelves on several skylit walls.1 The sculpted faces—portraits
of her friends, fellow émigré artists and intellectuals—are grouped
together as if in hushed conversation (see figure I.1). Who were these
people, and what could their portraits tell me about this fascinating
woman? Orloff produced over five hundred documented sculptures
in a range of materials. In light of the constraints that she faced as a
woman and a Jewish émigré, her productivity and commercial suc-
cess is astounding. She made her career in France and Israel, but al-
ways returned to this Parisian studio to make her work. In 1926 she
commissioned the notable French architect Auguste Perret, one of
Le Corbusier’s teachers, to design this studio as one of the first “live-
work” spaces for artists in the Montparnasse neighborhood. It became
a popular meeting place for international artists, writers, and intel-
lectuals, especially those from Palestine and later Israel. My first visit
to this magical place led to a decades-l ong fascination with Orloff and
a desire to share her life story with a broader public.
In 1924, Orloff, age thirty- six, hired the American photojournalist
Thérèse Bonney (born Mabel Thérèse Bonney) to photograph her in
her studio to promote an upcoming exhibition (see figure I.2). This
photograph reveals Orloff’s imposing physical presence, muscular
body type, and forceful attitude. What I find most fascinating about
the image is Orloff’s bold pose. She sits on a pedestal, her arms folded
proudly across her chest. I’m reminded of the Greek myth of Pygma-
lion, the sculptor who fell in love with a statue of a woman he created.
Only in this case, the artist, not merely the sculpture, is a woman. She
is both the maker and the object of our gaze. Her determined posture
echoes that of Man with a Pipe (1924), her life- size full- body portrait
ix