Nahum Tschacbasov

Russian-American Jewish expressionist artist
  • Esther Sorokin,
  • Irene Zevon

Nahum Tschacbasov (1899–1984; Russian: Наум Степанович Чакбасов,[2] Georgian: ნაუმ ჩაჩბასოვი)[3] also known as Nahum Lichter, and Nahum Tschakbassoff, was a Russian-born American painter, printmaker, graphic artist, poet, businessperson, and educator.[4][5] He used many names including Nahum Lichter, Nathan Richter, H. H. Richter, Hanathan Richter, and Nathan Lichterman.[3] Tschacbasov was a member of "The Ten", a group of expressionist artists.[6]

Early life

He was born on August 31, 1899, in Baku, Russian Empire,[7] into a Georgian Jewish family.[3] In 1905, when he was a young child, his family moved to Chicago because of pogroms.[3] There are varying stories as to why he used different names either due to a forged passport used for immigration; to avoid paying child support; and/or because he was a con-man.[3] He served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919.[8]

Career

In the 1920s and 1930s, he worked as a businessman in Chicago where he made a fortune.[3] His second marriage was to his secretary Esther.[3] Tschacbasov moved to France in 1932 to 1933, where he studied painting with Adolph Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire, and Fernand Léger.[3][9]

When the family returned to the United States the Tschacbasov family moved to Brooklyn.[3] Early in his career he had a good relationship with artists Milton Avery, Raphael Soyer, Moses Soyer, Isaac Soyer, William Gropper, David Burliuk, and Philip Evergood.[3] In 1935, he was part of a group exhibition at the Gallery Secession alongside Mark Rothko, Gottlieb, and the other artist members of "The Ten".[3]

He taught at the Art Students League of New York.[10] Additionally he taught painting at his own art school in Woodstock, New York; and taught at the Marxist-focused John Reed Club School.[10][11] His notable art students include Fritzie Abadi,[12] James F. Walker,[13] and his future wife Irene Zevon.[14]

In 1982, Southampton College Press published his illustrated poetry book, Machinery of Fright.[5]

Death and legacy

He died in February 1984 at New York University Hospital.[10] He is buried in New Montefiore Cemetery.

It was estimated he had made some 7,000+ paintings and prints.[5] His work is included in museum collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[4] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[10] the Brooklyn Museum,[10] the Jewish Museum,[10] and the Whitney Museum of American Art.[10]

In 2013, he had a posthumous solo exhibition curated by Marina Kovalyov at the National Arts Club, as part of the 11th Annual Russian Heritage Month.[9]

Personal life

Tschacbasov was a member of the Communist Party.[3][6]

His second wife was Esther Sorokin, who died in 1961;[3] his third wife was painter and his former student, Irene Zevon.[10][15] He had two children.[10] His daughter was Alexandra (or Sasha, Sondra), she was the second wife of writer Saul Bellows; together they had son Adam Bellow.[3] Bellows book Herzog (1964) was influenced by his divorce to Alexandra.[16][17] According to Alexandra in 2011, her father sexually abused her starting around age 11.[3][18]

Publications

  • Tschacbasov, Nahum (1982). The Machinery of Fright. Southampton College Press. ISBN 9780943052007.

References

  1. ^ Genocchio, Benjamin (2006-12-10). "Re-examining the Works of an Obscure Social Realist". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  2. ^ "Искусство и архитектура русского зарубежья - ЧАКБАСОВ Наум Степанович". artrz.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-03-11.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Leader, Zachary (2015). The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 463–465. ISBN 978-0-307-26883-9.
  4. ^ a b "Nahum Tschacbasov". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  5. ^ a b c Delatiner, Barbara (1982-06-27). "The Lively Arts; at 82, He Adds Poetry to His Art". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  6. ^ a b Patterson, Jody (2020-11-17). Modernism for the Masses: Painters, Politics, and Public Murals in 1930s New York. Yale University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-300-24139-6.
  7. ^ "Baku-born American artist's exhibition held in New York". Azernews.Az. 2013-07-31. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  8. ^ "Nahum Tschacbasov in the U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010". Ancestry. Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. January 29, 1919.
  9. ^ a b "Nahum Tschacbasov: A Retrospective, First Solo Exhibition in Over 25 Years". ArtfixDaily. May 28, 2013. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Nahum Tschacbasov". The New York Times. 1984-02-21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  11. ^ Marquardt, Virginia Hagelstein (1986). "The American Artists School: Radical Heritage and Social Content Art". Archives of American Art Journal. 26 (4): 17–23. doi:10.1086/aaa.26.4.1557206. ISSN 0003-9853. JSTOR 1557206. S2CID 193369427.
  12. ^ Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-135-63889-4.
  13. ^ Yochim, Louise Dunn (1979). Role and Impact: The Chicago Society of Artists. Chicago: Chicago Society of Artists.
  14. ^ Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Vol. 3. Sound View Press. 1999. p. 3681. ISBN 978-0-932087-55-3.
  15. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths, Tschacbasov, Irene Zevon". The New York Times. 2006-02-21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  16. ^ "Saul Bellow's Revenge Novel". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. 2015-05-04. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  17. ^ Tanenhaus, Sam (2015-04-27). "'The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964,' by Zachary Leader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  18. ^ Franklin, Ruth (2015-05-01). "Dissolution by Details: On women's history and group biography". Harper's Magazine. Vol. May 2015. ISSN 0017-789X. Retrieved 2022-07-27.

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