Reuben Nakian, was born in 1897 in College Point, New York. He is recognized as a major figure in 20th Century art, his long career touching more of American art history than most artists, living or dead.
He enjoyed a long and distinguished career, maintaining his innovative nymph spirit and creativity over more than seventy years, constantly rethinking and revising his modes of sculptural expression and exploring and mastering new media. His work is characterized as bold, massive, rough textured forms organically draped or leaning heavily against one another. Most are abstract portrayals of themes from classical mythology and are generally noted for their spontaneous sensuality.
Nakian received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nebraska and Bridgeport, medals from the Philadelphia College of Art and the American Academy/National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture. He was the recipient of awards from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Brandeis University, and the Rhode Island School of Design. He was also the guest of honor at the Famous Artist’s Evening at the White House (1966), and the Smithsonian Institution produced a documentary on his life and work titled “Reuben Nakian: Apprentice to the Gods,” in 1985. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1931 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1958, and he represented the United States as the major sculptor in the VI Bienal in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1961) and the 1968 Biennale in Venice, Italy.
Nakian’s work is represented in the permanent collections and sculpture gardens of many of America’s most prestigious museums and institutions. He died on December 4, 1986 in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of eighty-nine.
