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Chana Orloff

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Chana Orloff, Gabriel Talphir Archive, The Information Center for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Chana Orloff(Hebrew:חנה אורלוף;12 July 1888 – 16 December 1968) was Ukrainian-bornFrenchandIsraeliArt decoandfigurative artsculptor.

Signature of Orloff onthe sculptureofReuven Rubin,1926, bronze

Biography

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Chana Orloff, 1915,Amazone,bronze, 73.5 cm

Chana Orloff was born the eighth of nine children in a village calledKamenka,also known by the name of Tsaraconstantinovka,[1]Russian Empire(nowUkraine).[2]It was an agricultural colony in the Kherson district, Alexandrovesk county, Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovskaya) province in southeastern Ukraine, on the coast of theSea of Azov,part of theBlack Sea.[2]The largest nearby city wasMariupol,the second largest port city afterOdessain the Southern Russian Empire. As a teenager she took classes in sewing and dressmaking inMariupolto ensure she could earn a living and avoid anarranged marriage.[2]

In order to escape thepogromsin this period in Ukraine, Orloffimmigratedwith her family toOttoman Palestinein 1905 and settled inPetah Tikva (Gateway of Hope), the first Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine.[2]She worked as a seamstress designing and sewing European-style clothing for local Jewish settlers.[2]Eventually she moved away from her family and rented a room of her own in theNeve Tzedekneighborhood ofJaffa,to be closer to her clients.[2]Zvi Nishri(Orloff), the pioneer in physical education in Israel, was her brother.[3]Orloff took class at theGymnasia Herzliya,where Nishri was a teacher, and joined theHapoel Hatzairworkers movement andHapoel Rishon LeZionsports club.[2]After five years in Palestine, she was offered a teaching position in sewing and dressmaking at Hovevei Zion School for Girls in Jaffa.[2]Orloff went to Paris to study fashion with the expectation she would return to Palestine to begin her teaching position.[2]In Paris she took classes in drawing and fashion design and worked at the haute couture house ofPaquin.[2]In 1911 she matriculated at theÉcole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifsin hopes of pursuing a career in fine art. She enrolled simultaneously in informal classes at theAcadémie RusseinMontparnasse.In 1916, she married Ary Justman, a Warsaw-born Jewish writer and poet. The couple had a son in 1918, but Justman died ofinfluenzain theepidemic of 1919.[2]When theNazisinvaded Paris, Orloff fled to Switzerland with her son and the Jewish painterGeorges Kars.In February 1945, Kars committed suicide in Geneva,[4]after which Orloff returned to Paris, to find that her house had been ransacked and the sculptures in her studio destroyed.[5]

Art career

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My Son,1924,Tel Aviv Museum of Art

In Paris, Orloff became friendly with other young Jewish artists, among themMarc Chagall,Jacques Lipchitz,Amedeo Modigliani,Jules Pascin,Chaïm Soutine,andOssip Zadkine.In 1913, she exhibited in theSalon d'Automne.After the establishment of the State of Israel, Orloff began spending an increasing amount of time there. TheTel Aviv Museum of Artheld an exhibition of 37 of her sculptures in 1949. She remained in Israel for about a year in order to complete a sculpture ofDavid Ben-Gurion,The Hero Monumentto the defenders ofEin GevandThe Motherhood Monumentin memory of Chana Tuchman Alderstein who died during the1947–1949 Palestine war.After her return to Paris in 1950, Orloff received support and friendship from the Ukrainian-born artistNorman Cartonto further grow her Parisian career using photography. She became a mentor to him. In addition to monuments, Orloff sculpted portraits of Israeli Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurionand future Prime MinisterLevi Eshkol;the architectsPierre Chareau,andAuguste Perret;paintersHenri Matisse,Amedeo Modigliani,Pablo Picasso,andPer Krohg;and the poetsHayyim Nahman Bialik,andPierre Mac Orlan.[citation needed].

Orloff died in Israel on December 16, 1968.

See also

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References

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  1. ^See Rokhel Luban (1898-1979),Memoirs,no date; translated from Yiddish by Chaim Freedman, http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/colonies_of_ukraine/memoirs_of_rokhel_luban.htm. Luban was born in 1889 in the neighboring Jewish colony of Trudolyubovka, which was also known to the Jews as Engels. In her memoir, Luban states that there were 17 colonies in Yekaterinoslav, and that the names of the town Tsaraconstantinovka and Kamenka were in fact interchangeable. Kamenka was established as a Jewish agricultural colony of Kherson Guberniya in 1808: http://evkol.ucoz.com/colony_kherson_en.htm.
  2. ^abcdefghijkBirnbaum, Paula (2023).Sculpting a Life: Chana Orloff Between Paris and Tel Aviv.Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press.ISBN978-1684581139.
  3. ^Raful Eitan (1992).A Soldier's Story: The Life and Times of an Israeli War Hero.SP Books.ISBN1-56171-094-6.Retrieved3 November2011.
  4. ^Hersh Fenster,Undzere Farpainikte Kinstler,Paris, 1951, p. 200
  5. ^Birnbaum, Paula J. (2015) 'Chana Orloff', inJournal of Modern Jewish Studies,1: 23, Routledge 2015/12/21.doi:10.1080/14725886.2015.1120430

Further reading

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  • Birnbaum, Paula J.Sculpting a Life: Chana Orloff Between Paris and Tel Aviv,Brandeis University Press, 2023.
  • Birnbaum, Paula J.Women Artists in Interwar France: Framing Femininities,Aldershot, Ashgate, 2011.
  • Kikoïne, Yankel,Chana Orloff,Paris, Musée Bourdelle, 1988,ISBN2-901784-12-7.
  • Kofler, Hana,Chana Orloff: Line & Substance,1912-1968. Tefen: the Open Museum, Tefen Industrial Park, 1993.
  • Marcilhac, Félix.Chana Orloff,Paris: Editions de l’Amateur, 1991.
  • Musée Rodin,Chana Orloff; sculptures et dessins,Paris, Musée Rodin, 1971,
  • Richard de la Fuente, Véronique,Dada à Barcelone, 1914-1918: Chronique de l'avant-garde artistique parisienne en exil en Catalogne pendant la grande guerre: Francis Picabia, Manolo Hugue, Serge Charchoune, Marie Laurencin, Olga Sacharoff, Franck Burty, Chana Orloff, Albert Gleizes, Kees van Dongen, Arthur Cravan, Otto Lloyd, Pau Gargallo, S et R Delaunay,Céret, Albères, 2001,ISBN2-9517196-0-4.
  • The Tel Aviv Museum, Chana Orloff: Exposition Retrospective, 120 Sculptures, 60 Designs, Tel Aviv Museum, 1969.
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