Lithuanian-born artist William Zorach (1887-1966) immigrated to the United States in 1891 at age four with his family. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, he acquired his art education through a lithography apprenticeship and formal study at the Cleveland School of Arts, the National Academy of Design in New York and the La Pallette School in Paris.

Professionally, he was a member of the American Society of Painters, Sculptors & Gravers, the American Society of Sculptors and was active in the creation of the Sculptors Guild. In 1931, the Art Institute of Chicago awarded him the second Logan Prize for his sculpture, “Mother and Child” which he sculpted from a two-ton block of pinkish blue-grained marble. It took Zorach 18 months to complete.

The display of such paintings of his as “Spirit of Dance” at the Radio City Music Hall in New York and his sculpture of Benjamin Franklin at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum help shape and preserve the ideals of American culture into tangible works for the public to learn from and enjoy.

Conservation

Photos:
Left top: Peter A. Juley & Son Collection Smithsonian American Art Museum J0029383
Left bottom: William Zorach, 1948 / John D Schiff, photographer, 1 photographic print: b&w; 26 x 21 cm. Courtesy of the Miscellaneous Photograph Collection, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Right: William Zorach, ca. 1940 / Walt Sanders, photographer, 1 photographic print: b&w; 33 x 28 cm. Courtesy of the Forbes Watson papers, 1900-1950, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.