Road to Georgetown, watercolor, 1927

"There are things one does for the pure love of form and color, in the easy abandonment to the moods and the fancies of the moment. These are my watercolors.

Then there are the visions imprisoned in the rock and the visions deep in one's soul - the things one does in seeking for the inner rhythms of nature and life. In the journeys into the unknown region where one can grasp only mystic fragments from the great subconscious that surrounds us. There is much of pain and exhalation in creative work. A resistless, relentless power that makes one ever create. This is my sculpture. All these things have their place and their value."
From Art is My Life: William Zorach

Mother & Child, marble, 1952

Spirit of the Dance
Aluminum, 1932

Sunrise - woodcut, c.1916

The Island, color linocut, 1916

The Prayer, mahogany, 1956

William Zorach's Biography

Personal:
Born, 1889 in Lithuania.

Family immigrated to Port Clinton and then to Cleveland, Ohio - 1891

Married Marguerite Thompson (painter) when they moved permanently to New York City - 1912

Son Tessim born 1915
Daughter Dahlov born 1917

The Zorach family spent winters in New York City and summers in New Hampshire, Chappaqua, NY; Provincetown, Mass; and Stonington, Maine. In 1923 they purchased a farm in Robinhood, Maine on Georgetown Island.

William died in Bath, Maine, November 15, 1966

Art Studies:
Worked as a lithographer's apprentice as a young man in Cleveland, Ohio . Took night classes at Cleveland School of Art -1907

Studied at The National Academy of Design in New York City - 1908

Subsequently moved to Paris in 1910. Took painting classes with John Duncan Fergusson and Jacques-Emile Blanche at La Palette, where he met Marguerite Thompson.

Experimented with direct carving both wood and stone - 1918

Gave up painting in oils in 1922

Career:
William Zorach was a member of the avant-garde movement that revolutionized painting around the turn of the twentieth century. As a young artist, William adopted Marguerite's Fauvist beliefs, and sought to eradicate earth tone colors from his compositions. Painting in the post-impressionist mode of bold lines and colors, Zorach had his work included in the groundbreaking Armory Show of 1913 in New York. He strongly believed in the abundance of nature as a source for artistic inspiration, and was influenced by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.... his simple and solid renderings garnered him significant recognition as one of the foremost sculptors of the time. (from National Museum of Wildlife Art)

General:
Designed and painted scenery for the Provincetown Players in 1916.

Honors:
Received D.F.A. from Bates College, Lewiston, Me
Elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1953

Positions:
Taught 30 years at the Art Students League in NYC.
Founding member of the Sculptor's Guild
Lectured on sculpture at Columbia University
Visiting artist at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Me.

Public Spaces:
The Runner - bronze fountain piece, Kiener Plaza, St Louis, Ill.
Spirit of the Sea - bronze fountain, Bath, Me.
Spirit of the Dance - aluminum sculpture, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y.
Limestone Relief - NY City Municipal Court, New York, N.Y.
Builder's of the Future - 1939 New York World's Fair
Reliefs - Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
Ben Franklin, statue, U.S. Post Office, Washington, D.C.

Murals:
U.S. Post Office, Stoneham, Mass.
US Post Office, Greenville, Tenn.
US Post Office, Washington, D.C.

Permanent Collections :
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Me.
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Me.
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Me.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y.
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Me.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y.
Wichita Museum of Fine Art, Wichita, Kans,
Snite Museum, University Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
University of Delaware, Newark, Del.

Best Biography
See Jessica Nicoll's "To Be Modern"
The Origins of Marguerite and William Zorach's Creative Partnership, 1911-1922 by Jessica Nicoll : Former Curator, Portland Museum of Art; now Director of the Smith College Museum of Art

Zorach works for sale at our galleries...
For a small overview see William & Marguerite's galleries

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