Personal and professional papers of Jacques Lipchitz
1910–73
Jacques Lipchitz (22 August 1891-26 May 1973) was a French-American sculptor of the Cubist style. He was born to a Jewish family in Druskieniki, present day Lithuania, then a part of the Russian Empire. In 1909 he moved to Paris to study sculpture and, with some short gaps, stayed there until his emmigration to the USA in 1942. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915-16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, and dominated by a synthetic style of Crystal Cubism. In 1920 Lipchitz held his first solo exhibition, at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie L'Effort Moderne in Paris. Fleeing the Nazis he moved to the USA in 1942 and settled in New York City and eventually to Hastings-on-Hudson.
These digitised materials include 280 pages of his three notebooks showing the artist in his early days in Paris (1915-25), during the hardships of the war and before his ability as a sculptor was widely recognised. There are also around 1000 items from Lipchitz's personal and business correspondence, reflecting his connections with European artists (Moishe Kisling, Le Corbusier, Karl Teige), and his personal life, evident in his letters to his wife Berthe, parents, siblings, and close friends. There are 150 documents related to two of Lipchitz's artistic and political projects before the Second World War, namely his participation in the Paris International Exhibition of 1937 and his trip to the USSR in 1935. Also included are 50 of his drawings and several examples of rare printed materials, such as early Cubist and Futurist journals and the publications of emigre Russsian communities in Paris. Finally there are more than 1000 photographs, mostly of maquettes of his statues, but also of his family and friends.
- Collection Owner
- Jacques Lipchitz 1891–1973
- Collection
- Tate Archive
- Acquisition
- Presented to Tate Archive by Rubin Lipchitz, March 1989; the cataloguing and selective digitisation of this archive collection was supported by Mr Timm Bergold, 2023
- Reference
- TGA 897
451 objects in this collection
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Personal and professional papers of Jacques Lipchitz
451 Objects
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Correspondence
212 Objects
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Correspondence to and from Jacques Lipchitz
183 Objects
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Correspondence between D. Aranovich and Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Letters from ‘Association des Ecrivains et Artistes Revolutionnaires’ to Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Letters from Pavel Barkhan to Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Correspondence between ‘The Barnes Foundation’ and Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between Alfred and Margaret Barr and Jacques Lipchitz
4 Objects
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Correspondence between Jeanne Bucher and Jacques Lipchitz
30 Objects
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Correspondence between Albert Buesche and Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between Andre de Fels and Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Correspondence between Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles and Jacques Lipchitz
10 Objects
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Correspondence between Paul Dermee and Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Correspondence between journal ‘Documents’ and Jacques Lipchitz
4 Objects
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Correspondence between Pierre Dubaut and Jacques Lipchitz
40 Objects
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Correspondence between Varian M. Fry and Jacques Lipchitz
5 Objects
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Letters from Walter Gropius to Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Correspondence between Moise Kisling and Jacques Lipchitz
4 Objects
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Letters from Germaine Krull-Ivens to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between Juan and Marguerite Larrea and Jacques Lipchitz
10 Objects
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Correspondence from Le Corbusier to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence from Berthe to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between Jacques and Dina and Fanya Lipchitz
4 Objects
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Correspondence between Jacques and Pavel Lipchitz
1 Object
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Letters from the Mánes Association of Fine Artists to Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Postcards from Oscar Miestchaninoff to Jacques Lipchitz
3 Objects
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Correspondence between Moulineaux-Billancourt Station and Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between James M. Nahon and Jacques Lipchitz
4 Objects
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Correspondence between Edouard Pignon to Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Correspondence between Jacques Lipchitz and ‘Plans’ journal
1 Object
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Correspondence from P.A.Pocheron to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence of Serge and Helene Refes with Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Letters from Walya Resnikoff to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Letters from N. Sant’Andrea to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between Cesare Sofianopulo and Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Correspondence between Camille Soula and Jacques Lipchitz
1 Object
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Postcards from ‘Der Sturm’ to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Letters from Charles Teige to Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence between Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Jacques Lipchitz
8 Objects
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Correspondence between Christian Zervos and Jacques Lipchitz
2 Objects
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Correspondence to and from Berthe Lipchitz (Kitrosser)
28 Objects
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Other correspondence
1 Object
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Artworks
23 Objects
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Business papers
60 Objects
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Personal papers
18 Objects
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Writings
12 Objects
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Printed material
18 Objects
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Photographs
108 Objects
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- Title
- Correspondence of Serge and Helene Refes with Jacques Lipchitz
- Date
- 1 October 1929–15 April 1941
- Description
- Two postcards from 1929 and 1937, all from Helene and Serge Refes;
five preprinted postcards dated 1940 and 1941: four of them from Helene and Serge Refes to Lipchitz who is in Toulouse and one postcard from Lipchitz, Toulouse to Refes, Paris. Postcard dated 1 Oct 1929 is sent from Paris. Serge writes in Russian that he does not have any news but is amazed by 'the record beated bye Lyonya' [Leonid?]. In the postcard in Russian sent from Ghent and dated 20 Dec 1937, Serge relates some travel news. Helene adds in French that marriage is a very tiresome thing.
All five postcards dated 1940 and 1941 contain the pre-printed form. The special instructions to filling up this form says: 'After completing this card, strictly applied for the correspondence between the members of one family, cross the words that are not used. Don't write anything beyond the lines. ATTENTION. All the cards, where wording is not only of the family manner, will not be delivered and probably will be destroyed'.
The fields on this pre-printed card are:
"...................................le...194...
...en bonne sante [in good health]...fatigue [tired].
......legerement, gravement malade, blesse [lightly, seriously ill, wounded]
...tue [killed].....prisonnier [prisoner].
....decede [died]....sans nouvelles [with no news].
de [of]....La famille [family]...va bien [is well].
...besoin de provisions [in need of food]....d'argent [money].
nouvelles, bagages [news, luggage]....est de retour a [is back in]
...travaille a [works in]....va entrer [going to enter]...
...a l'ecole de [the school/college of]....a ete recu [was received]
....aller a [to go to].....le..."
Only very basic house news by Refes family were given. In the postcard dated 28 October 1940 Helene tells that they don't have any news from Lipchitz. In the postcard dated 28 November 1940 Helene gives unimportant news, but Serge adds that it is good to know that his family is ok and asks if Lipchitz has any news from his brother [Rubin]. In the postcard dated 27 December 1940 Helene tells that they don't have any news from the Serge's family, but her own family is ok. The postcard dated 6 April 1941 and sent by Lipchitz was refused by the postal service. There is a stamp: 'Inadmis. Libelle non reglementaire'(Not allowed. Non-regulatory wording). It is impossible to understand what was the reason. Here is the whole text in translation: 'We are in good health. Why no news? I work on my sculpture, but will depart soon. Give us your news before our departure. Tell us how you are. From both of us, J. Lipchitz'. Probably the mention of 'the departure', which can be seen as a sign of immigration, which it really was, could be considered as a break of the rules. In the postcard dated 15 April 1941 Serge asks Lipchitz, where they are going (meaning: 'immigrating') and informs: 'Serge is denaturalised'. - Reference
- TGA 897/1/1/326
