MALVINA HOFFMAN by Alexandre, Arsene

Description and catalog of world class sculptress. 1887-1966. Paris, 1930, J.F.Pouterman. 7 1/2 x 10 1/2, , 1/4 cloth boards, very slight soiling and small liquid spot to front cover on o/s edge, very slight wear to right upper corner, else near VG. 46 pages of text in French, followed by English language catalog of her work, with 86 fine B&W plates. With chronological list of 86 principal works, 1910-1929. .---------------------------------------------------a New Yorker by birth, studied painting for six years before turning to sculpture. She became a pupil of Auguste Rodin, and by 1915 had achieved national recognition for her Pavlowa Gavotte and Bacchanale Russe, compositions on the rhythms of the Russian Ballet which won 1st Prize at the Paris Exhibition. Two years later she won the Shaw Memorial Prize at the National Academy of Design and in 1920 the Widener Gold Medal. The French Government awarded Miss Hoffman the Palmes Academique in 1920. ---------------------------------------------In 1921 she was accorded the Helen Foster Barnett Prize at the National Academy of Design and the Elizabeth Watrous Gold Medal in 1924. Her most recent work is the "International Dance" fountain at the New York World's Fair, chosen as one of the six works of sculpture to be placed on permanent exhibition. Examples of her work are to be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the Memorial Chapel of Harvard University, the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh and the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington.----------------------------------------------------------Her greatest project and achievement was the creation for the Field Museum of Chicago of the sculptural Hall of Man. Begun in 1930 the work took five years to complete and led her to the remote corners of the globe in search of racial types. The story of this unique quest is told in Miss Hoffman's famous book 7-leads and Tales. The one hundred bronzes which make up the "Races of Man" form an incomparable collection, probably the most popular museum exhibit in the world.