Chana Orloff

Exhibition at the Musée Zadkine, Paris, 15 November 2023 - 31 March 2024

Nothing predestined Chana Orloff (1888-1968) to become one of the most renowned sculptors of the École de Paris. Born in what is now Ukraine into a Jewish family who had emigrated to Palestine, she arrived in Paris in 1910 to take a degree in dressmaking. In contact with the artists of Montparnasse, many of whom, such as Modigliani and Soutine, became her friends, Chana Orloff abandoned her first profession to devote herself exclusively to sculpture, and quickly became one of the most sought-after portrait artists of her time.

Persecuted because of her Jewish origins, Chana Orloff narrowly escaped the Vel d'hiv rafle with her fils and managed to flee to Switzerland. Returning from exile in 1945, she nonetheless returned to sculpture, dividing her time between France and Israel, where she produced several works, including Maternité Ein Gev, the life-size model of which is featured in the exhibition.

This catalogue, the first Parisian retrospective devoted to the sculptor since 1971, traces the career of this extraordinary artist, from her beginnings in Montparnasse to the revival of her sculpture after 1945. The chrono-thematic approach brings together the work of Chana Orloff and that of Ossip Zadkine, focusing on themes explored by both artists at different periods in their lives, such as the portrait and the human figure, the female body and bestiary.