biographie de José DECREEFT (1884-1982)

Birth place: Guadalajara, Spain

Death place: New York, NY

Addresses: NYC (1929-on)

Profession: Sculptor, educator

Studied: apprenticed to maker of religious images, Guadalajara, 1895; appren. at Mastiera & Campins bronze art foundry, under Maria Benlliure, Guadalajara, 1898; with Spain's official sculptor, Don Augustin Querol, 1900; Acad. Julian, Paris, France, 1905-07; Maison Greber, Paris, 1911-14 (for stonecutting); …cole des Beaux-Arts; Rodin; Landowski; ASL

Exhibited: El Circulo Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain, 1903; Acad. Julian, 1906 (prize); Salon d'Automne; Salon de Tuileries; Salon des Artistes Indépendants; Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1916-28; Gallerie Costa, Mallorca, 1929 (solo); Seatle Art Inst., 1929 (solo); AIC; New Sch. Social Research, NYC, 1932 (solo); Salons of Am., 1935; Artists for Victory, MMA, 1942 (first prize); Critics Choice, Armory Show, New York, 1945; PAFA, 1943-66 (1945, gold medal for portrait of Rachmaninoff); U.S. Contemporary Art, Moscow, USSR, 1959; WMAA, 1939-66 & Retrospective Traveling Show (13 U.S. museums, Ford Foundation award), 1959-60; Festival of the Arts, Rose Garden, White House, Wash. DC, 1965; Hirschorn Mus., Wash. DC, 1975; G.D. Widener Mem.; NAC Medal of Honor, 1975; traveling exhib. to nine museums in Spain, 1980; NMAA, 1983 (solo); Santa Fe East Gal., 1984; Childs Gal., Boston, 1989

Member: Artistes Français; Salon d'Automne; Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts; Salon de Tuileries; NSS; Fed. Modern P. & S.; American Acad. Arts & Letters; Audubon Artists (vice pres., 1958); fellow, NIAL; NA (vice pres., 1972); Sculptors Guild (a founder; exec. board, 1940; vice pres., 1958); plus others.

Work: Wichita Mus. Art; Norton Gal. Art; Univ. Nebraska; BM; IBM; MoMA; WMAA; PMA; MMA Smithsonian Inst.; Vatican Mus. Modern Art; plus others. Commissions: Soldier War Mem. (granite), Saugues, Puy de Dome, France, 1918; 200 sculptures in stone, Forteleza de Ramonje, Mallorca, Spain, 1927-1929; Poet," Fairmount Park Assoc., Phila., 1951; Alice in Wonderland (bronze group), Delacorte Foundation, Central Park, NY, 1959; Nurses (mosaic mural), Bronx Municipal Hospital, NY, 1962; The Gift of Health to Mankind (bronze relief), Public Health Lab, Bellevue Hospital, NY, 1967"

Comments: Important modernist who sculpted directly in stone and marble. Teaching: instructor sculpture, New School Social Res., 1932-39 & 1957-65; instructor sculpture, ASL, 1944-48; Black Mountain College, summer, 1944;

Sources: WW73; WW47; Robert Hanson, Jose de Creeft" (film), CBS Camera 3, 1967; Alfredo Gomez-Gil, Cerebros Espanoles en USA (1971); Jules Campos, Jose de Creeft, (1972); exhib. cat. (Child Gal, Boston, 1989); article in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (Dec. 1989);Fort, The Figure in American Sculpture, 189-90 (w/repro.); Falk, Exh. Record Series.