Elie Nadelman
1882–1946
Polish-born Elie Nadelman immigrated to the United States in 1914, having already achieved fame in Paris as a sculptor of sleek, stylized figures and heads inspired by ancient Greek and Roman precedents. In 1920, drawing on the popular entertainments and upper-class society he encountered in America, he commenced a group of figures in wood that included dancers, musicians, and circus performers. Tango exemplifies Nadelman’s ongoing quest to join classical clarity and order with the abstract values of modernism. Composed of tubular forms and fluid lines, the pair of dancing figures reflects the artist’s intent to “employ no other line than the curve, which possesses freshness and force. I compose these curves,” he wrote, “so as to bring them in accord or in opposition to one another. In that way, I obtain the life of form, i.e., harmony.”
In addition to such formal concerns, Tango registers Nadelman’s newfound engagement with American culture. The fashionable subject—the Argentine dance that gained popularity in the United States on the eve of World War I— represented a departure from the artist’s more resolutely classical imagery. His substitution of raw and painted cherrywood for the bronze or marble he typically used also reflected his burgeoning interest in American folk art, which he avidly collected. The figures of Tango nevertheless lack the unbridled sensuality for which the dance was famous, remaining faithful to Nadelman’s idealized aesthetic. With their discrete, elongated bodies, elegantly crossed arms, and hands poised to touch, they are suspended between formal rigor and graceful ease, estrangement and freedom, timelessness and contemporaneity.
Introduction
Elie Nadelman (born Eliasz Nadelman; February 20, 1882 – December 28, 1946) was a Polish-American sculptor, draughtsman of the School of Paris and a collector of folk art.
Wikidata identifier
Q1288595
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 10, 2025.
Introduction
Comment on works: sculptor; painter
Roles
Artist, collector, engraver, genre artist, owner, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500032388
Names
Elie Nadelman, E. Nadelmann, Eli Nadelman, Elie Nadelmann, E Nadelman, Nadelmann, Eli Nadelmann, e. nadelman, elie nadelman, eli nadelman
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 10, 2025.
