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Reuben Nakian Selections from the Centennial Exhibition |
Reuben Nakian, born August 10, 1897 in College Point, New
York, enjoyed a long and distinguished career, maintaining his innovative
spirit and creativity over more than seventy
years, constantly rethinking and revising his modes of sculptural
expression and exploring and mastering new media--marble, clay,
plaster, metal, paper, and, in his last years, styrofoam.
Nakian received honorary doctorates from the Universities of
Nebraska (1969) and Bridgeport (1972), medals from the 
Philadelphia College of Art (1967) and the
American Academy/National Institute of Arts and Letters (1973),
and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1983). He was the
recipient of awards from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts
(1979), Brandeis University (1977), and the Rhode Island School
of Design (1979).
Nakian was a guest of honor at the Famous Artist’s Evening at the White House (1966), and the Smithsonian Institution produced a documentary on his life and work titled “Reuben Nakian: Apprentice to the Gods,” (1985). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1931 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1958, and he represented the United States as the major sculptor in the VI Bienal in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1961) and the 1968 Biennale in Venice, Italy.
Nakian’s work is represented in the
permanent collections and sculpture gardens of many of
America’s most prestigious museums and institutions. He has
been honored with major one man exhibits at the Los Angeles
County Museum (1962), the New York Museum of Modern Art (1966),
the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC (1981), the Milwaukee Art
Museum (1985), the Gulbenkian Centro de Arte Moderna, Lisbon,
Portugal (1988), and a Centennial Retrospective at the Reading
(PA) Public Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington,
DC (1999), the site of Nakian’s first one-man museum
exhibition in 1935.
Garden of the Gods I was one of five
sculptures to inaugurate the Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof
Garden, while other of his monumental works preside over civic
and private settings across America.
Reuben Nakian is a major figure in 20th Century art, his long career touching more of American art history than most artists, living or dead. He died on December 4, 1986 in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of eighty-nine, “one of the most distinguished American sculptors of the 20th Century” (New York Times obituary, 12/5/86). This exhibition is made possible through the courtesy of Paul (Class of '59) and Maria Nakian.
Babbidge Library, Gallery on the Plaza
March 25 - May 25, 2001
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 1, 2-4pm
Curators: David Kapp & Dennis Thornton