Jacques Lipchitz (1891- 1973)

Jacques Lipchitz (Chaim Jacob Lipchitz) was born on 22 August 1891in the outskirts of the Russian Empire, in a distant provinceof Lithuania , in the town of Druskininkai . It is an artist whose creative heritage belongs to all nations. His name was entered into history textbooks on art history, encyclopaedias, his sculptures are enjoyed by residents of Paris, New York , and Jerusalem . In the town of Druskininkai there was born a universal artist and creator of a cosmopolitan stature, who was also extremely close to the culture of his nation, Jews, to the suffering of the Jewish people. Lipchitz was there on the road of suffering together with his nation by his expressive sculptural means and metaphors, he used the language of art to speak of the public spirit and human striving for freedom.

Jacques Lipchitz left the “first” motherland early, in 1909 – at that time he was barely eighteen. He went to Paris , the capital of arts at that time, and studied at Ėcole des Beaux - Arts and Academie Julian.

Lipchitz’s early work was influenced by the creative tradition of the grand masters of that time Maillol and Despiau. They were characterised by both – academic and art nouveau stylistic elements. In 1911 - 1912 Jacques Lipchitz had not yet become close to cubism, but in 1913, when he was working and living in Montparnasse, through his friend Diego Rivier who later became a famous monumentalist he met Picasso. Pablo Picasso by that time, together with Braques, had formulated and embodied the main ideas of cubism in 1908 – 1913, he voiced manifests, created an innovative way of interpreting and transforming shapes through deconstruction of the shape and volume of the art’s object and reconstructing, recreating it anew.

Therefore, in 1913-1914 the creation of Jacques Lipchitz is marked by obvious innovation and effort to understand and absorb the features of the stylistics of cubism. In 1915 Jacques Lipchitz entered the ranks of forefront cubists together with such names Picasso, Braques, Gris, Leger and Laurens. The sculptures of this period are characterised by clear constructive, broken-line style, clearly defined range of themes, iconography.

1915 - 1930 was the period when Jacques Lipchitz’s creation was most prominent and consistent in terms of adherence to cubism, whereas from 1930 his works start to show a turning point in stylistics. The artist no longer divides his sculptures into austere, geometrical planes, they become more curvaceous, round and plastic, the outline starts to meander, to pulsate. There is more tracery, expression, gesture in his works, and plasticity reaches almost transparent dimensions. The fact that the work of the sculptor started to exhibit more shapes that are close to the plasticity of a human body did not make them more realistic, the abstract, modernistic expression remained strong in his works (more of a biomorphic abstraction that analyses human and animal bodies), this expression was no longer geometrical pure cubistic, but digressive from the expression means and methods proclaimed by cubism. Although, according to Jacques Lipchitz himself, ”cubism was the basis of my later works”, artist’s style grew more individual, expressive with manifestations of vitality – a quality of his temperament.

Jacques Lipchitz regarded himself as a representative of cubism all his life, but his creation went on the road of more individual expression, of..”body-sign”, ..”body-metaphor”.

The works of Picasso, the pioneer of cubism, also show the wish for further exploration, developments, transformations, and the apotheosis of cubist forms, planes, deformations, construction and deconstruction was not to be the last and satisfactory stop in artistic development.

As early as in 1937 the works of Jacques Lipchitz, that followed the creative mode of new expression, plasticity and was enriched by mythological and the Old Testament themes, were exhibited in “Maitre de l' art independant”, a prestigious exhibition in Paris . His works appeared together with works by Bourdelle, Maillol, and Lauren. On the same year the work “Prometheus” made Jacques Lipchitz as important as Picasso, important in fighting the fascism, in the moral struggle, fought by the creation unrepeatable, dramatic and effective works of art.

When analysing the creative heritage of Jacques Lipchitz it is essential to understand the peculiarities of his creative process, the process, which starts with generating the main idea, applying the principles of automatism through the final result, made of stone or bronze. Despite the innovativeness, astounding expression, vitality of forms of the artist, his work methods were quite traditional. The sculptor would always create multitudes of clay and plaster models, he analysed in great detail and perfected the forms.

Jacques Lipchitz also created sketches on paper, he used various techniques, therefore his graphic works, made by pencil, chalk, ink, gouache, lithograph prints and soft lacquer technique are felt to dialogue with well-known sculptures and they stand as a proof of various subtleties of creative process. There is infinite thoroughness of the artist and intensity of creative process, importance of motives, the entire process of creation, in the course of which the specimens of sculpture of an unrepeatable, original plasticity were born.

The connection between sketches, models and final works of art reveals the many-sidedness, universal character of artist’s talent, helps to decipher the poetics, philosophy of monumental sculpture metaphors, the inherent declaration of love of life, dramatics – eternal issues of human existence skilfully embodied in bronze or stone.

In analysing monumental plasticity of the sculptor’s work, in both – drawings and lithographs – we find dialogue between several forms and figures: they dramatically intertwine, struggle, there is a sense of tension among them, they merge and grow into one pulsating entity, there is a feeling of fusion of masses, the harmony of combinations of volumetric and tracery masses, dramatics of it all.

The sensual magic of forms of these works is very compelling. His creation could be defined as modern symbolism that has absorbed many symbolist elements, the symbolism of ideas, peculiar, individual symbolism. The iconography of works of Jacques Lipchitz is dominated my the themes of maternity, love, apotheosis of humanity, fight of human and evil forces – these themes are conveyed by using antique mythology (“Prometheus”, “The Rape of Europa”, “Bellerophon Taming Pegasus”) and the Old Testament (“Jacob Wrestling with the Angel”, “David and Goliath”, “Hagar in the Desert”, “Sacrifice” and other).

The artist expresses the struggle between good and evil, the triumph of humanity against evil and violence through the expressive symbiosis of forms. Centaur-like, half-human shapes, it is as if they are caught in action, in violent struggle of bodies and minds.

Drawings and lithographs quite well represent the main ideas and principles of the creation of Jacques Lipchitz. The development of style and iconography is especially apparent in lithographs. They are very expressive, vivid, lines and outlines are pulsating, forms create the impression of three dimensions, reflect the modern “baroqueism” of the sculptor, lines at times flow agitatedly in extremely painterly “strokes” and at other times transform into anxious, dotted lines that tend to break off.

The outlines of sculptures of the artist can be easily recognised in lithographs and their iconography. These include “Prometheus”, “Sacrifice”, “Bellerophon Taming Pegasus” and other works, one has only to look attentively to visualise three-dimensional analogues of lines and forms of graphic works, to perceive the parable of thought, exceptional stylistic monuments and sculptures.

In 1960 Jacques Lipchitz wrote in his autobiography: “I more and more clearly perceived that my entire career expressed the effort to achieve the maximum of freedom in creation, artistic freedom”.

Although the artist died thirty years ago (1973), this yearning for freedom and spirit of freedom present in every artwork charms everyone who encounters the unique creation of the sculptor.

Vaidilutė BRAZAUSKAITĖ