1 April – 30 October 2022
The project aimed to popularise the work of this outstanding artist, who lived from 1882 to 1946 and is internationally recognised as one of the most outstanding sculptors of the first half of the 20th century, a pioneer of many art movements, including Art Deco. His art is located in all the most prominent museums, mainly in the United States. While living in Paris, Elie Nadelman was friends with eminent representatives of the art world, including André Salmon, Amadeo Modigliani, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and in the milieu of the Polish artistic colony, he maintained close relations with Leopold Gottlieb, Mela Muter, Gustaw Gwozdecki, Eugeniusz Zak, Louis Marcoussis and many other artists. His studio was frequented by Pablo Picasso, who admired his formal experiments.
The project included the following tasks:
- organising and promoting an exhibition of sculptures, drawings, and prints by the artist from the Paris period 1904-1914 under the title 'Elie Nadelman - Polish precursor of Art Deco';
- preparing and publishing the catalogue “Elie Nadelman. In Search of Beauty…', containing articles by researchers Agnieszka Dzika, Dr Ewa Ziembińska, Dr Ewa Bobrowska, Dr Magdalena Furmanik-Kowalska and Cynthia Nadelman;
- art workshops for seniors and young people in cooperation with the Arts Warehouse, a branch of the Ochota Cultural Centre;
- development and distribution of two educational cards for children about sculpture and Art Deco;
- catalogue promotion;
- other educational activities, including guided tours of the exhibition, both in person and online (3 films made available on the foundation's website and YouTube platform).
The exhibition was officially opened on 10 May. The opening was attended by academics, cultural popularisers and journalists. Four afternoon guided tours of the exhibition were held for adults and young people on the dates: 09.06., 07.07., 08.09., 29.09. An online guided tour was also prepared in the form of three films made available free of charge on YouTube and the foundation's website.
There were also two educational meetings at the exhibition for students of art history at the University of Warsaw, as well as a study visit by participants of the academic conference 'Antiquity in Polish Art and Artistic Culture of the Late 18th – Early 21st Century', organised by the Polish Institute of World Art Studies on 21-23 September in Warsaw. The artist and the exhibition were the subject of a lecture titled 'Elie Nadelman. Beauty and Modernity' organised by the Art Transfer Foundation and artdone.pl (17 June 2022). The exhibition was also presented on 6 September during the Pardes Festival in Kazimierz Dolny.
As part of the educational activities, four meetings were held for seniors and young people organised together with the Arts Warehouse, a branch of the Ochota Cultural Centre, on 19.05, 02.06, 23.06 and 07.07. They included: guided tours of the exhibition and discussions about art and art deco, followed by art workshops (drawing using various techniques and on multiple substrates). The results of the workshops in the form of drawings were presented as a multi-day exhibition at the Arts Warehouse.
The PZU Foundation was a partner of the project. Collaboration: Archive of Emigration in Toruń, Polish Institute of World Art Studies, OKO Art Magazine. Media patronage: RMF Classic, Rynek i sztuka, Dobre Wnętrze, Urzadzamy.pl, Artluk, Linia Prosta.
As part of the project, a catalogue 'Elie Nadelman. In Search of Beauty' was published. Edited by Magdalena Furmanik-Kowalska and Krzysztof Wejman in an edition of 300 copies
ISBN: 978-83-963329-1-2
The publication contains the following contents: a) an editorial introduction with statements by Prof. Jerzy Malinowski, b) a curatorial article by Agnieszka Dzika 'Elie Nadelman. Perfect Form', c) Dr Ewa Ziembińska's article 'The Great Absentee. Nadelman in Poland', d) Dr Ewa Bobrowska's 'Loose pages about Nadelman, Golberg and the perfection of the form', e) Dr Magdalena Furmanik-Kowalska's 'How art became advertising. The image of Helena Rubinstein and the work of Elie Nadelman, f) Cynthia Nadelman 'Chronology of the life and work of Elie Nadelman', g) a catalogue part containing photographs of the works presented at the exhibition together with descriptions and interpretations of the objects by Agnieszka Dzika, h) a list of selected exhibitions and a bibliography, i) a reprint of the artist's artistic manifesto from the magazine 'Sztuka' from 1912, j) reproductions of 32 drawings by the artist constituting his portfolio 'Vers La Beauty Plastique'.
The publication uses a hard cloth binding reminiscent of the style of publications produced in the early 20th century. The printing on the cover was done in an artisanal way by the screen-printing workshop “Kwiaciarnia Grafiki” using environmentally friendly inks. The online catalogue promotion with the authors took place on 27 September, at 6 p.m. The event was watched live by 55 people, with an additional 36 people watching afterwards. The meeting was recorded and will be made available as a video on the Foundation's YouTube platform and website.
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