Collection of Nathan Rapoport prints and sketches (RG-94-4) נתן רפופורט

Identifier
irn84800
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2014.132
  • RG-68.181
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Hebrew
  • English
  • French
  • Yiddish
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

305 digital images, JPEG

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Nathan Rapoport was born in 1911 in Warsaw, Poland to a poor but extremely religious Jewish family. He was the grandson of Hasidim: one grandfather was a cantor; the other a shochet [ritual slaughterer]. As a child he belonged to Hashomer Hatsa’ir [Young Guard of the Zionist Left Wing], and attended Hebrew school. However, he had to leave school to help support the family. Rapoport trained as an architectural apprentice and at age 14 entered a municipal art school and studied sculpture. He attended the Academy of Art in Warsaw and won awards for his architectural, metal, and sculptural work and commissions for portrait busts that helped pay his tuition. He received scholarships to study at the Fine Arts Academy in Paris and to travel to Italy. Throughout the 1930s, he entered and won many competitions. In 1936, his piece, The Tennis Player, was submitted by the Polish government for exhibition in Berlin as part of the Summer Olympics, but Rapoport refused to let it be shown in Nazi Germany. In June 1939, Rapoport left Paris and returned to Warsaw. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Rapoport fled the city to join the Polish army which was regrouping in the forests between Warsaw and Bialystok. Unable to locate the army, Rapoport, along with other Jewish refugees, fled east into Soviet-controlled territory. Refugees who could provide skills deemed valuable by the state were allowed to stay in the Soviet Union. Rapoport identified himself as an artist and joined a collective of 120 Jewish artists in Bialystok which provided food, clothing and housing. Members of the Communist Party Arts Committee arrived from Minsk, looking for works for an upcoming exhibition. Rapoport’s work impressed the committee and they moved him to a studio in Minsk where he worked alongside another Jewish artist. Several of his pieces were shown at this exhibition. While in Minsk, the 2nd secretary of the Party, Kulagin, visited Rapoport’s studio and commissioned several state projects. On June 26, 1941, the Germans captured Minsk after a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, and Rapoport and his wife were evacuated to Alma Alta. Rapoport was forced to leave his family and was shipped to a forced labor prison camp in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Rapoport learned that his former patron, Kulagin, now the 1st secretary of the Party, was based in Novosibersk. The two met and Kulagin moved Rapoport out of the camp and into a studio. He provided Rapoport with food and vodka; Rapoport used the alcohol as currency to purchase supplies. Recommissioned as state sculptor, he created sculptures of people the state deemed worth remembering, such as people and heroes of the Patriotic War. He spent the remainder of the war living and working in Russia until he was repatriated to Warsaw in early 1946. Both his mother and sister perished during the Holocaust. In 1947 Rapoport presented a model to the Warsaw Jewish Committee. The model commemorated the Warsaw ghetto uprising, which began on April 19, 1943, when Jewish residents of the ghetto, faced with deportation, resisted German forces. It ended on May 16, 1943, with the destruction of the ghetto. The committee accepted his design with the provision that it must be completed by the anniversary of the uprising on April 19, 1948. Soon after the dedication, Rapoport emigrated to the newly established state of Israel where he lived until immigrating to the United States in 1959, becoming a citizen in 1965. Rapoport produced multiple, large scale, public works memorializing the Holocaust throughout the world, including Yad Vashem and Kibbutz Yad Mordecai in Israel and monuments in Philadelphia and New York City. He died in New York City on June 6, 1987. At the time of his death, he was divorced and survived by a daughter. He was 76 years old. Emu Biography: Nathan Rapaport also designed a monument to the Warsaw ghetto uprising which was unveiled in 1948.

Archival History

Shomer ha-tsaʻir (Organization : Israel). Merkaz tiʻud ṿa-ḥeḳer

Acquisition

Source of acquisition is the Hashomer Hatzair Archives, Yad Yaari, Israel, Records Group 94-4. The reproduction was completed as a joint project with Yad Vashem. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received this collection via the United States Holocaust Museum International Archives Project in July 2014.

Scope and Content

The collection contains Nathan Rapoport prints for his monument "Scrolls of Fire," and his other skeches. The monument "Scrolls of Fire" found in the Jerusalem hills, and it commemorates Jewish history from the Holocaust until Independence. The monument was inaugurated in 1971. The sculpture is made of bronze and is eight meters high. It is in the shape of two scrolls, a gesture to the Jewish nation being the "People of the Book." One of the scrolls describes the Holocaust and the other describes independence. It tells the story of the rebirth of the nation from the Holocaust up to the Six Day War. This collection contains also other artist's skeches.

System of Arrangement

Arranged in three series: 1. Prints for the monument "Scrolls of Fire" (Digital folder #1); 2. Sketches for the painting "The Girl Playing Flute" (Digital folder # 2); 3. Sketches of the nude model (without date) (Digital folder #3-4).

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Shomer ha-tsaʻir (Organization : Israel). Merkaz tiʻud ṿa-ḥeḳer

People

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.