Father and Daughter: William Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar

William Zorach
March 7 – May 3, 2024
Maine Jewish Museum

About This Exhibition

William Zorach was born in Jurbarkas, Lithuania in 1887. Zorach emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio at four years old with his large Jewish family. None of them spoke English upon arrival in their new country. Zorach’s family suffered after leaving Lithuania, faced with poverty and discrimination in the United States. After attending public school until 7th Grade, Zorach attended art schools in Cleveland, New York City and then Paris training in lithography and painting. In his 20’s, teaching himself the principles and methods of sculpture.

As a sculptor in the United States, Zorach pioneered the art of direct carving stones. He preferred direct carving granite boulders, which he often found himself on walks. There is a spirituality to Zorach’s sculptures inspired by the stones he used and they are uniquely expressive – largely conveying love, strength and inner peace. Zorach was very thoughtful and articulate about his work.

Many of these direct carved sculptures in stone and wood were cast in bronze. In this exhibition, guest curated by Rachel Walls, seven (7) works in bronze created between 1949 and 1956 will be shown together for the first time. These bronzes – Battle of the Ghetto, Refugees, Their Annihilation, Sacrifice, The Prayer, Samuel Answers the Lord and Head of Moses – are deeply personal works Zorach created as he processed his own reaction to the Holocaust in Europe and World War II.

Additionally, eleven watercolors featuring familiar landscapes of the Maine Coast painted by Zorach between 1945 and 1964 will also be on view. Zorach’s watercolors are meditations and odes to the constantly changing world around him – its moods, light, colors and character.  While these two media differ dramatically from each other, Zorach conveyed a shared message of love, strength and inner peace when he worked in them.

About the Artist

William Zorach’s public commissions include The Runner at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis, MO; the Spirit of the Dance at Radio City Music Hall in New York, NY; Limestone Relief: the Municipal Court, New York, NY; and a statue of Benjamin Franklin at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. William Zorach’s artwork is in the permanent collections of many museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME; the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT;  the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY; the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Oqunquit, ME; the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; The Phillips Collection, Washington DC; the British Museum, London, UK; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel.