José de Creeft

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José de Creeft (born November 27, 1884 in Guadalajara , Kingdom of Spain , † September 11, 1982 in New York City , USA ) was an American sculptor born in Spain .

Life

De Creeft grew up in Barcelona , where his family moved in 1888. Two years later, his father passed away, leaving his family penniless. As a child he earned his first money by hauling sand and stones for the church building site of the Sagrada Família by architect Antonio Gaudí . At the age of ten he made clay figurines for the feast of Santa Lucia, which he sold on the steps of the Cathedral of Barcelona . Two years later he began an apprenticeship with a sculptor who made religious art out of wood. The following year he began an apprenticeship at the bronze foundry “Masriera & Campins” and met the sculptors Maria Benlliure and Manolo Hugo there .

In 1900 de Creeft went to Madrid to gain his first experience in working with stone in the workshop of Augustin Querol Subirats . There was a first exhibition of his works here. In 1905 he went to Paris on the recommendation of Ignacio Zuloaga and attended the Académie Julian at the suggestion of Auguste Rodin . He moved into a studio in Montmartre and came into contact with Pablo Picasso , Juan Gris and Pablo Gargallo . In 1906 he received the Grand Prix of his academy in the "Concours de Sculpture". In 1909 he returned to Paris after a stay in Spain and started in 1911 in the company "La Maison Greber", which specialized in the production of reproductions of stone sculptures. In 1915 he turned to direct carving , in which the artist carves his work of art out of the material without stencils or templates. He preferred this type of design to other methods until the end of his life. The sculptor Alexander Calder learned the technique of direct carving at de Creeft .

From 1919 to 1929 he exhibited at the events of the Paris Société du Salon d'Automne . In 1927 he received an order for the castle of the painter Roberto Ramonge in Puerto Pollensa on Mallorca, on which he worked with interruptions until 1936. In 1929 he married his student, the American Alice Robertson Carr , in London , who followed him to Mallorca. Alice and her two children were evacuated from a US warship in 1936 when the civil war in Spain broke out .

In the meantime, de Creeft had established himself as an artist in New York. From 1932 he was a lecturer in sculpture at New York's New School for Social Research . In 1939 the couple divorced. In 1940 he became a citizen of the United States. In 1944 he became a lecturer at the Art Students League of New York . In the same year he married his student Lorrie Goulet , who later became a sculptor. The couple had a daughter in 1948.

In 1955, José de Creeft was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters . In 1964 he was elected a member ( NA ) of the National Academy of Design after he had been elected a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society in 1958 .

Works

  • 1923: Maternity , granite sculpture, 67.9 × 44.5 × 42.5 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art , Manhattan, New York City, USA.
  • 1925: El picador , sculpture made from different parts of an iron stove exhibited at the Paris Salon des Indépendants in 1926. Today in the possession of the Fundació Joan Miró , Barcelona.
  • 1941: Emerveille , female serpentine sculpture , 47.3 × 17.1 × 17.1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City, USA.
  • 1959–1963: Nude in Wood , walnut on a wooden base, 45.5 × 20.56 × 9.6 cm, Smithsonian American Art Museum , Washington, DC, USA.

De Creeft's works can be seen in various places in the US in public spaces :

Exhibitions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Members: José de Creeft. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed February 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "D" / de Creeft, Jose NA 1964 ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on June 20, 2015)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalacademy.org

literature

  • John J. Cunningham: Jose De Creeft , University of Georgia Press / National Sculpture Society, Athens, Georgia, USA 1956.
  • Carles Fontsere: La aventura humana de José de Crafft, escultor. Historiada con fotografias y textos . la Caixa, Madrid, 1981.
  • Who was who in America. : volume VIII, 1982–1985 with world notables , Marquis Who's Who, Chicago, Ill., 1985, p. 104.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME De Creeft, José
ALTERNATIVE NAMES de Creeft, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Guadalajara (Spain) , Kingdom of Spain
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1982
Place of death New York City , USA