Nathaniel Kaz: Sculptures in Bronze, Stone & Wood
American Master Sculptor (1917-2010)

Nathaniel Kaz, American figurative sculptor (1917-2010)

CHRONOLOGY

1917     Born in New York City. Father was a concert violinist, Mother a pianist and piano instructor.

1927     Began sculpture studies in atelier of Samuel Cashwan, Detroit, MI.

1928     Awarded Michigan Sculpture Prize, Detroit Institute of Arts.

1929     Began New York City art education at Art Students League as full-time student under George B. Bridgeman, and attended Cooper Union in the evenings.

1931     Commenced stonecarving - apprenticed to sculptor Aaron Ben-Shmuel.

1934     Joined Stone Carvers’ Union.

1937     Engaged in WPA Creative Project for approximately two years.

1937     Founding member of Sculptors’ guild.

1939     First one-man show at Downtown Gallery, NYC.

1939     Exhibited Chicago World’s Fair, United States Pavilion, Chicago, IL

1947     Invited onto the permanent faculty of the Art Students League, and taught continuously through academic year 1997.

1955     Awarded First Prize in international competition to create 60 foot monument to stand in front of the United Nations General Assembly Building, NYC.

1955     Metropolitan Museum purchased “Dance Espanol” for permanent collection.

1959     Awarded Grant, National Institute of Arts and Letters, NYC.

1963     Spent first summer in Pietrasanta, Italy. Thereafter, returned every summer to work in his studio and that of the Tommasi Foundry.

1979     Awarded Certificate of Merit, Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, NYC.

1987     “Angel’s Serenade,” a 1982 bronze, featured on front cover of Sculpture Review

1987     Awarded Vincent Glinsky Award at Audubon Artists

1987     Elected Fellow, National Sculpture Society.

1988     Elected Associate, National Academy of Design

1988     “Shepherd Playing Country Music” awarded Agop Agopoff Award, National Academy of Design

1988     “Vanishing American” awarded Medal of Honor at Audubon Artists.

1989     Awarded Saltus Gold Medal, National Academy of Design, NYC for “Salome”.

1991     Retrospective Exhibition, The Art Students League of New York, NYC.

1991     Elected to Academician — National Academy of Design, NYC.

1998     “Mother Earth,” exhibited in “The Human Figure in Transition 1900-1945, American Sculpture from the Museum’s Collection.”   The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

2006     Awarded National Sculpture Society Gold Medal & Maurice B. Hexter Prize at 73rd Annual Exhibition, Quick Center For the Arts, Fairfield, CT and Brookgreen Gardens, SC.

2006     Bestowed Lifetime Achievement in Sculpture Award by Westchester County and the Sculptors’ Guild at “The Sculpture Forum on the Plaza” Exhibition, White Plains, NY.

2006     Lived and worked in New York City and Pietrasanta, Italy.

2010     Died in NYC

SELECTED AWARDS AND GRANTS

1928     Sculpture Prize, Annual Exhibition of Michigan Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan.

1940     Award, U.S. Government Section of Fine Arts, Social Security Building, Washington, D.C.

1943     Award, “Wings for Victory” Competition, Metropolitan Museum, NYC.

1953     Alfred G.B. Steel Memorial Prize, Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA.

1955     First Prize, United Nations competition for sixty-foot sculpture to be erected in front of the United Nations General Assembly Building, NYC.

1958     Honorable Mention in Sculpture, National Gold Medal Exhibition, Architectural League of New York, NYC.

1959     Grant, National Institute of Arts and Letters, NYC.

1960     Medal of Honor for Sculpture, Audubon Artists Annual Exhibition (Medal of Honor also in 1980, 1983), NYC.

1976     Certificate of Merit, Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, NYC.

1979     Certificate of Merit, Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, NYC.

1980     Medal of Honor for Sculpture, Audubon Artists Annual Exhibition (Medal of Honor also in 1960, 1983), NYC.

1983     Medal of Honor for Sculpture, Audubon Artists Annual Exhibition (Medal of Honor also in 1960, 1980), NYC.

1988     Vincent Glinsky Memorial Award for Sculpture, Audubon Artists Annual Exhibition, NYC.

1988     Agop Agopoff Award, National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition, NYC.

1988     Bedi-Makky Foundry Prize, National Sculpture Society Annual Exhibition, NYC.

1989     Saltus Gold Medal, National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition, NYC.

1991     Bedi-Makky Foundry Prize, National Sculpture Society Annual Exhibition, Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT.

1991     C. Percival Dietsch Sculpture Prize, National Sculpture Society Annual Exhibition, NYC.

2006     National Sculpture Society Gold Medal and Maurice B. Hexter Prize, National Sculpture Society Annual Exhibition, Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT and Brookgreen Gardens, SC.

2006     Bestowed Lifetime Achievement in Sculpture Award, Westchester County and the Sculptors’ Guild at “The Sculpture Forum on the Plaza” Exhibition, White Plains, NY.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1939     National Art Society, New York World’s Fair. American Art Today, p. 206, ill.

1948     Brumme, C. Ludwig. Contemporary American Sculpture, NY: Crown Publishers, p.72, ill.

1951     Zaidenberg, Arthur, ed. The Art of the Artists: Theories and Techniques of Art by the Artists Themselves. NY: Crown Publishers. Nathaniel Kaz, “Good Sculpture,” pp. 170-174; ill.

1957     Greenwich Gallery, New York. Fifty Contemporary American Artists, pp 58, 59; ill.

1957     Ark Films Production, Produced by George Arcaro, written, edited and directed by Ray Wisniewski. A Small Bronze Mask, a Portrait of the Sculptor Nathaniel Kaz as Revealed in His Works. 35mm., 20 minutes.

1961     Neuberger, Roy R., ed. The Theatre Collects American Art, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, P. 37: illustration.

1961     Goodrich, Lloyd and John I.H. Baur. American Art of Our Century. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art and Frederick A. Praeger, pp. 192, 195; ill.

1966     Kampf, Avram. Contemporary Synagogue Art: Developments in the United States 1945-1965. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, pp. 102-03, 173, 254-55; ill.

1977     NYC WPA Artists, Inc. New York City WPA Art. New York, p. 49; ill.

1986     National Sculpture Society. Sculpture Review. Fall 1986, Vol. XXXV, No. 3, Cover Photo.

1991     National Sculpture Society. Sculpture Review. Winter 1991, Vol. XXXX, No. 4, pp. 16-17, “Making the Invisible Visible”.

2009     National Sculpture Society. Sculpture Review. Winter 2008, Vol. LVII. No.4. pp. 30-35, “Music and Sculpture, A Survey.”