Minna Harkavy

Bronze Modernist Sculpture Portrait, Leo Stein by Minna Harkavy WPA Artist

c.1930-1940

Chaim Gross (American, 1904-1991) Patinated cast bronze sculpture, Three Acrobats, signed mounted on black marble plinth 24.5"h x 14"w x 7"d (bronze alone) Chaim Gross (March ...

Milton Hebald (American, 1917-2015) Lion of Judah menorah bronze on a white marble plinth base signed in bronze 12" H x 10.5" W x 2.5" D Milton Elting Hebald (1917 – 2015) was a s...

Chaim Gross (American, 1904-1991) Patinated cast bronze sculpture, Balancing, Mother and child signed and editioned 1/6 mounted on black marble plinth 14"h x 11.5"w x 8"d (height w...

Retaining a fine patina and in overall good condition. Signed with initials SB. I believe the edition size was 7 But I cannot find a mark. Stanley Bleifeld (1924 – 2011) was an American sculptor. Stanley Bleifeld was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Bleifeld earned bachelor of fine arts, bachelor of science in education and in 1949 a master of fine arts degree in painting at Tyler School of Art of Temple University. After a trip to Rome in 1959 or 1960 he gave up painting for sculpture. He began his fine-art career as a painter. However, a visit to Italy and exposure to the bronzes of Donatello, Michelangelo, and Ghiberti changed his direction He worked with the Art Foundry of Massimo del Chiaro and alongside artists such as Lucchesi, Harry Marinsky, Fernando Botero, Igor Mitoraj and Ivan Theimer. Many of his early pieces were religious subjects, and reflected both painting and sculptural techniques in bas reliefs* that had "liquid landscapes in undulating reliefs and free-flowing portraits reminiscent of classical fragments" (166-167). He later turned from these abstract pieces to more realistic figures in bronze. Bleifeld was a National Academician in Sculpture, and a member of the National Academy of Design, and helped set policy for that organization. He was also President of the National Sculpture Society. Past presidents of the society have included John Quincy Adams Ward, James Earle Fraser, Chester Beach, Wheeler Williams, Leo Friedlander, Neil Estern, and Cecil de Blaquiere Howard. The first woman to gain admission into the NSS was Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, in 1893. She was followed a few years later by Enid Yandell and Bessie Potter Vonnoh in 1898; Janet Scudder in 1904; Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1905 and Evelyn Longman and Abastenia St. Leger Eberle in 1906. In 1946, Richmond Barthé was likely the first African-American to be admitted. In 1994, the NSS held their first exhibition outside the United States at the Palazzo Mediceo Di Seravezza in Italy. Titled “100 Years of the National Sculpture Society of the United States of America in Italy” it ran from the 16th of July through the 4th of September and was curated by Nicky and Stanley Bleifeld along with Costantino Paolicchi, Lodovico Gierut and Paolo Giorgi. Among the 60 notable American sculptors whose work was selected for the exhibition were Stanley Bleifeld, Andrew DeVries, Neil Estern, Leonda Finke...