Elie Nadelman

American, born Poland, 1882–1946

Recognized as one of the pioneers of modern art, Nadelman was born in Russian-controlled Warsaw in 1882 and studied at the Warsaw Art Academy. He settled in Paris in 1904 and was welcomed into Gertrude Stein’s modernist artist circle. He was influenced by the work of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, classical Greek art, and folk-art dolls of the 18th and 19th centuries. Nadelman’s first one-man show in Paris in 1909 was a great success and he was later represented in the 1913 Armory Show in New York City, the first major exhibition of avant-garde art in the United States. With the assistance of American philanthropist Helena Rubinstein, he moved to New York City in 1914, where he continued his art career until his death in 1946.