Reuben Nakian ( 1897-1986 )
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Sea Lion - c.1930 Aluminum 7 ½ x 11 ¾ x 6 ½ inches
Signed (on underside): NAKIAN Click image for detailed view |
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Provenance:
Erhard Weyhe
His daughter, Gertrude Weyhe Dennis
Weyhe Gallery, New York
Private collection, New York
Exhibited:
The Salons of America, Forum Gallery, New York, 1934, no. 2733, quite possibly this example.
Born in College Point, New York, the son of Armenian immigrants, Reuben Nakian was a gifted sculptor who produced works in a variety of materials ranging from terracotta to steel. Though receiving little to no formal artistic education, he demonstrated a natural talent for draftsmanship and at the age of nineteen was offered an apprenticeship in Paul Manship’s studio. Working closely with Manship's chief assistant, the French-born sculptor Gaston Lachaise, Nakian acquired training in the techniques of modeling, casting and patination.
From the two men, the budding artist also gained access to important art world figures. While sharing a studio with Lachaise in New York, Nakian came in contact with Juliana Force, the organizer of the Whitney Studio Club, and was awarded a generous living stipend. The artist had his first solo show there in 1926, and the following year became associated with Edith Halpert and the Downtown Gallery.
Throughout the 1920s, Nakian concentrated on animals as his primary subject matter. Inspired by a book on Spain’s Altamira cave drawings that he discovered at the Weyhe Book Store and Gallery, he created sculptures of bulls, rabbits, and seals until 1932, when he began producing portrait busts of contemporary artists. Although Lachaise was concurrently making animal-themed sculptures, it was Constantin Brancusi’s streamlined carvings and bronzes that informed the younger artist’s visual vocabulary. Rejecting the naturalism of his two mentors, Nakian mastered a stylized simplification of form that pushed toward greater abstraction.
In Sea Lion, the artist focused on the elemental forms of the creature’s body, eliminating detail in order to capture the spiritual essence of the animal. The sculpture’s smooth curves and voluptuous surface are markedly different from the massive, expressionist works that Nakian began producing in the 1940s, when he became involved with the Abstract Expressionist movement through his friend Arshile Gorky. The lightweight, modern material of aluminum endows the sea lion with a lissome quality, while the grey color evokes a sense of its coastal habitat. Deftly modeled, the undulating lines of the animal’s form ultimately convey its noble charm.
This sculpture was originally owned by Erhard Weyhe, the founder and proprietor of the Weyhe Book Store and Gallery. A center of modernist activity, the shop was frequented by many prominent American artists, including Rockwell Kent, Gaston Lachaise, John Sloan and Reginald Marsh. The gallery was also an avid supporter of print-making in the 1920s and 30s.
A related work titled Seal, 1930 (bronze, 17 ¼ in. high) is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art; another early work, Young Calf, 1929 (pink marble, 15 in. high) is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
