The cubist sculptor Jacques (Chaim Yankev) Lipchitz was born in Druzgenik in the Russian Empire (now Druskininkai, Lithuania). After studying engineering in Vilna, Lipchitz left Lithuania for Paris in 1909, where he studied sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Julian. After meeting Pablo Picasso in 1913, Lipchitz became interested in the French avant-garde and began experimenting with the formal aesthetics of cubism. He was drawn to the movement—through his emerging friendship with Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris—which he recognized as reaching its full potential in three-dimensional sculpture. In the 1920s, Lipchitz’s sculpture was animated beyond the confining geometricity of cubism. He also began to experiment with more political and personal themes, creating a series of autobiographical pieces following his move to New York in 1941.
The rape of Europa is a story from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus seduces the princess Europa and, taking the form of a bull, carries her on his back to the Mediterranean island of Crete. The…
The hotels designed by Morris Lapidus in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Fontainebleau, were pioneers of what came to be known as “Miami Modern” (MiMo), the signature style of resort hotels in…
Scribe writing, Sakkara, Egypt, ca. 2625–2350 BCE. The ease with which Baruch’s scroll was cut and burned in Jeremiah 36:23 indicates that it was written on papyrus, not leather. In this limestone…