William Zorach

Bill Zorach was born in Lithuania in 1887, emigrated to the United States when he was four not knowing a word of English, grew up in poverty, and left school in seventh grade. He then worked unsuccessfully in a variety of low-paid, entry-level jobs. Finally apprenticing as a lithographer, he saved whatever he could, and paid his own way to art school, first in his hometown of Cleveland, then New York, and finally Paris. It was in Paris where he met Marguerite Zorach; she persuaded him of the merits of the startling new trends in art.  He was successful in Paris from the beginning; he had four pictures accepted and two “hung in the line” at the juried, avant-garde Salon d’Automne.  His paintings scandalized critics when he participated in the seminal Armory Show of 1913, the notorious show that introduced modernism to America. He also participated in a famous and much more selective exhibition, The Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters in 1916. 

He had a calling not just to be an artist but discovered, not long into his career, his specific calling to be a sculptor; he taught himself the principles and methods of sculpture. He soon abandoned oil painting but continued to paint with watercolors, which he loved; his watercolors are meditations and odes to the constantly changing world around him, its moods, light, colors, character, and specific features.  While these two media differ dramatically from one another, Bill conveyed a shared message when he worked in them.  As a sculptor along with a few others, he pioneered the art of direct carving, and was unique in often using very hard, colored, and patterned stones like granite boulders, which he often found himself on walks. His work was inspired by the stones he used and is more expressive (especially of love, strength, and inner peace), spontaneous, and simplified than that of his predecessors.  There is also a spirituality to them.  Bill was very thoughtful and articulate about his work.  He can be mistaken as a conservative or representational sculptor only by those unfamiliar with his immediate predecessors.  Critics, collectors, and the public greatly admired Bill because he treated subjects of longstanding importance and affection to humanity with freshness, dignity, and restraint while emphasizing sculptural values. He was among the best known and respected sculptors of his generation, wrote a text about sculpture that is still used today, and was also beloved as a teacher.

He died in Maine in 1966.