Elie Nadelman

Chanteuse

Polish-born sculptor Elie Nadelman arrived in New York City at the onset of World War I. With his reputation firmly established by his inclusion in the 1913 Armory Show, the classically-trained European artist soon turned his attention to American folk art. Chanteuse synthesizes stylistic vocabularies into a form that is modern and traditional, cosmopolitan, and homespun. Parting from the techniques and materials associated with classical sculpture, such as marble and bronze, Edelman picks up the humble carving knife and cuts the curvilinear flow of European modernism into American cherry. Although rendered in a vocabulary reminiscent of rural self-trained artists, Nadelman’s subjects were plucked from New York City’s nightlife, a bustling cityscape inhabited by colorful characters swirling about concert halls and theaters. In Chanteuse, a singing woman raises her arms as if to signify the power of her voice during a performance. The work foregrounds Nadelman’s emphasis on abstracted but delicate curvilinear forms that add up to anonymous and idealized figures.