Motherhood

William Zorach (before emmigration – Zorach Gorfinkel, 1887–1966), who came from Jurbarkas, arrived in the United States as a child in 1891. He occupies an important place in the history of Lithuanian art and culture as an American artist of Lithuanian origin. In American art, Zorach is recognised as one of the pioneers of modernism, known for his Fauvist and Futurist paintings, as well as his Neoclassical sculptures. Motherhood is a recurring theme in his work. In his sculptures he captured the intimate bond between a mother and her child, often modelling them nestling closely together, almost as if they have grown into a single form. Notable works on this theme include the early plaster piece Mother and Child or Dike and Eirene (1918), held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the marble composition Mother and Child (1927–1930), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Motherhood, a smaller sculpture cast in concrete, in the collection, radiates serenity, and complements Zorach’s variations on this theme, while also demonstrating the wide range of materials he used.

Text author Laura Petrauskaitė

 

William Zorach (Zorach Garfinkel, 1887–1966) was an artist of Litvak origin, born in Jurbarkas, who migrated to the USA with his family in his childhood. He pursued his painting studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art and in Paris. In 1917 he put aside oil painting and took up sculpture. Despite achieving early success as a Modernist painter, participating in the renowned Armory Show in the USA, after 1922 he shifted his focus entirely to sculpture. Employing the direct carving method, he eschewed small-scale models, and carved his sculptures directly from stone. His work reflects a fusion of elements of Classical and primitive sculpture. Motherhood exemplifies this synthesis, presenting generalised forms depicting a mother and baby nestling closely together. There is a replica of this sculpture in the permanent collection of the Tyler Art Gallery at the State University of New York.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

 

Family and motherhood. Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism is an ethnic religion. The role of the mother and the family are very important: according to halakhah, a person born to a non-Jewish mother cannot be a true Jew. Every Jew must create a family, because the Old Testament says: ‘God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it!”’ (Genesis 1, 28). The family is one of the most important institutions of the Jewish community, and the wife and mother are the main guardians of Jewish traditions in the family. In the Litvak tradition, the phrase ‘a Yiddish mamma’ symbolises a mother’s infinite care and love, which is praised in Yiddish songs and depicted in art.

Max Band was orphaned at an early age, and later he focused on the family both in his personal life and in his work: his wife and son were the most important models for his portraits and characters in everyday and biblical scenes. His beautiful dark-eyed wife is also depicted in his Portrait of a Woman. Arbit Blatas, who grew up in Kaunas, loved his mother dearly. (She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.) The theme of motherhood was a key motif in works by William Zorach, who emigrated to America as a child; at the beginning as a ‘Yiddish mamma’, and later his wife with their daughter and son.

Text author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album MORE THAN JUST BEAUTY (2012). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, STORIES OF LITVAK ART (2023). Compiler and author Vilma Gradinskaitė, THE ART OF MATERIALS (2024). Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė, ARTISTS ON THE MOVE (2025). Compiler and text author Laura Petrauskaitė
Expositions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius; "Litvak Artists in Paris", 25 May 2023 – 29 September, Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art, Vilnius (curator Vilma Gradinskaitė). "Litvak Artists in Paris", 25 January 2024 – 3 June, Chaimas Frenkelis Villa-Museum, Šiauliai (curator Vilma Gradinskaitė); "In The Shadow of Knowledge", 5 June 2025 – 1 May 2026, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Jurgita Ludavičienė.

William Zorach (before emmigration – Zorach Gorfinkel, 1887–1966), who came from Jurbarkas, arrived in the United States as a child in 1891. He occupies an important place in the history of Lithuanian art and culture as an American artist of Lithuanian origin. In American art, Zorach is recognised as one of the pioneers of modernism, known for his Fauvist and Futurist paintings, as well as his Neoclassical sculptures. Motherhood is a recurring theme in his work. In his sculptures he captured the intimate bond between a mother and her child, often modelling them nestling closely together, almost as if they have grown into a single form. Notable works on this theme include the early plaster piece Mother and Child or Dike and Eirene (1918), held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the marble composition Mother and Child (1927–1930), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Motherhood, a smaller sculpture cast in concrete, in the collection, radiates serenity, and complements Zorach’s variations on this theme, while also demonstrating the wide range of materials he used.

Text author Laura Petrauskaitė

 

William Zorach (Zorach Garfinkel, 1887–1966) was an artist of Litvak origin, born in Jurbarkas, who migrated to the USA with his family in his childhood. He pursued his painting studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art and in Paris. In 1917 he put aside oil painting and took up sculpture. Despite achieving early success as a Modernist painter, participating in the renowned Armory Show in the USA, after 1922 he shifted his focus entirely to sculpture. Employing the direct carving method, he eschewed small-scale models, and carved his sculptures directly from stone. His work reflects a fusion of elements of Classical and primitive sculpture. Motherhood exemplifies this synthesis, presenting generalised forms depicting a mother and baby nestling closely together. There is a replica of this sculpture in the permanent collection of the Tyler Art Gallery at the State University of New York.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

 

Family and motherhood. Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism is an ethnic religion. The role of the mother and the family are very important: according to halakhah, a person born to a non-Jewish mother cannot be a true Jew. Every Jew must create a family, because the Old Testament says: ‘God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it!”’ (Genesis 1, 28). The family is one of the most important institutions of the Jewish community, and the wife and mother are the main guardians of Jewish traditions in the family. In the Litvak tradition, the phrase ‘a Yiddish mamma’ symbolises a mother’s infinite care and love, which is praised in Yiddish songs and depicted in art.

Max Band was orphaned at an early age, and later he focused on the family both in his personal life and in his work: his wife and son were the most important models for his portraits and characters in everyday and biblical scenes. His beautiful dark-eyed wife is also depicted in his Portrait of a Woman. Arbit Blatas, who grew up in Kaunas, loved his mother dearly. (She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.) The theme of motherhood was a key motif in works by William Zorach, who emigrated to America as a child; at the beginning as a ‘Yiddish mamma’, and later his wife with their daughter and son.

Text author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album MORE THAN JUST BEAUTY (2012). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, STORIES OF LITVAK ART (2023). Compiler and author Vilma Gradinskaitė, THE ART OF MATERIALS (2024). Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė, ARTISTS ON THE MOVE (2025). Compiler and text author Laura Petrauskaitė
Expositions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius; "Litvak Artists in Paris", 25 May 2023 – 29 September, Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art, Vilnius (curator Vilma Gradinskaitė). "Litvak Artists in Paris", 25 January 2024 – 3 June, Chaimas Frenkelis Villa-Museum, Šiauliai (curator Vilma Gradinskaitė); "In The Shadow of Knowledge", 5 June 2025 – 1 May 2026, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Jurgita Ludavičienė.