Alexander Liberman
Encyclopedia
Alexander Semeonovitch Liberman (born in Kiev
September 4, 1912 - died in Miami November 19, 1999) was a Russian-American magazine editor, publisher, painter
, photographer, and sculptor. He held senior artistic positions during his 32 years at Condé Nast Publications
.
. Life there became difficult, and his father secured permission from Lenin and the Politburo
to take the boy to London
in 1921.
Young Liberman was educated in Russia
England
and France
, and took up life as a White emigre
in Paris.
He began his publishing career in Paris with the early pictorial magazine Vu
, where he worked under Lucien Vogel and with photographers such as Brassai
, André Kertész
, and Robert Capa
.
After emigrating to New York
in 1941, he began working for Conde Nast Publications
, rising to the position of Editorial Director, which he held from 1962-1994.
Only in the 1950s did Liberman take up painting and, later, metal sculpture. His highly recognizable sculptures are assembled from industrial objects (segments of steel I-beams, pipes, drums, etc.,) often painted in uniform bright colors. Prominent examples are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, Storm King Art Center
, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
, Laumeier Sculpture Park
, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Tate Gallery
, and the Guggenheim Museum
.
He was briefly married (August 25, 1936) Hildegarde Sturm, a model
and competitive skier. His second wife (since 1942), Tatiana Yacovleff du Plessix Liberman (1906-1991), had been a childhood playmate and baby sitter. In 1941, they escaped together from occupied France, via Lisbon, to New York. She had operated a hat salon in Paris, then designed hats for Henri Bendel
in New York. She continued in millinery at Saks Fifth Avenue
until the mid-1950s, where she was billed as "Tatania du Plessix" or "Tatania of Saks". In 1992 he married Melinda Pechangco, a nurse who had cared for Tatiana during an earlier illness. His stepdaughter, Francine du Plessix Gray
, is a noted author
.
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
September 4, 1912 - died in Miami November 19, 1999) was a Russian-American magazine editor, publisher, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, photographer, and sculptor. He held senior artistic positions during his 32 years at Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...
.
Biography
When his father took a post advising the Soviet government, the family moved to MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Life there became difficult, and his father secured permission from Lenin and the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
to take the boy to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1921.
Young Liberman was educated in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and took up life as a White emigre
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
in Paris.
He began his publishing career in Paris with the early pictorial magazine Vu
VU
- Country codes :* VU is the country code of Vanuatu* .vu is Vanuatu's country code top-level domain- Companies :* Air Ivoire, IATA airline designator* Vivendi Universal, now Vivendi SA, a French company active in media and communications- Music :...
, where he worked under Lucien Vogel and with photographers such as Brassai
Brassaï
Brassaï was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars...
, André Kertész
André Kertész
André Kertész , born Kertész Andor, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition...
, and Robert Capa
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
.
After emigrating to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1941, he began working for Conde Nast Publications
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...
, rising to the position of Editorial Director, which he held from 1962-1994.
Only in the 1950s did Liberman take up painting and, later, metal sculpture. His highly recognizable sculptures are assembled from industrial objects (segments of steel I-beams, pipes, drums, etc.,) often painted in uniform bright colors. Prominent examples are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, Storm King Art Center
Storm King Art Center
The Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York is an open air museum which has extended the concept of a "sculpture garden" to become a "sculpture landscape." Founded in 1960 by Ralph E. Ogden as a museum for Hudson Valley painters, it soon expanded into a major sculpture venue with the...
, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
, Laumeier Sculpture Park
Laumeier Sculpture Park
Laumeier Sculpture Park is a open-air museum and sculpture park located in Sunset Hills, Missouri, near St. Louis and is maintained by the St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department. It houses over 70 outdoor sculptures and features a walking trail, outdoor movies, and summer camps...
, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
, and the Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
.
He was briefly married (August 25, 1936) Hildegarde Sturm, a model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and competitive skier. His second wife (since 1942), Tatiana Yacovleff du Plessix Liberman (1906-1991), had been a childhood playmate and baby sitter. In 1941, they escaped together from occupied France, via Lisbon, to New York. She had operated a hat salon in Paris, then designed hats for Henri Bendel
Henri Bendel
Henri Bendel is an American upscale women's specialty store based in New York City that sells fashion accessories, cosmetics and fragrances, gifts and gourmet foods...
in New York. She continued in millinery at Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
until the mid-1950s, where she was billed as "Tatania du Plessix" or "Tatania of Saks". In 1992 he married Melinda Pechangco, a nurse who had cared for Tatiana during an earlier illness. His stepdaughter, Francine du Plessix Gray
Francine du Plessix Gray
-Biography:She was born September 25, 1930 in Warsaw, Poland where her father, Vicomte Bertrand Jochaud du Plessix, was a French diplomat - the commercial attaché. She spent her early years in Paris, where a milieu of mixed cultures and a multilingual family influenced her...
, is a noted author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Career
- part-time design assistant to A. M. Cassandre for about three months, Paris, 1930
- Art Director, then Managing Editor, under Lucien Vogel, Vu magazine, Paris, 1933-36
- full-time painter since 1936
- Served in the French ArmyFrench ArmyThe French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
, 1940 - photographer since 1949
- sculptor since 1958
- Vogue magazine, New York. Condé NastCondé Montrose NastCondé Montrose Nast was the founder of Condé Nast Publications, a leading American magazine publisher known for publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker.-Background:...
himself hired Liberman as an assistant to Vogue art director Mehemed Fehmy Agha, who had just fired him. In 1943 Liberman succeeded Agha as the magazine's art director.- layout artist, 1941-43
- Vogue's Art Director, 1943
- Art Director, 1944-61. Vogue published Lee MillerLee MillerElizabeth 'Lee' Miller, Lady Penrose was an American photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer...
's photographs of the Buchenwald gas chambersGas ChambersGas Chambers is a fast, hollow and shallow point break type of wave. Being that it is a high performance wave it is well suited for the average to pro level surfer. Gas Chambers is located on the North Shore of Oahu about a 1/4 of a mile north of Ehukai Beach Park and 1/2 a mile west of Sunset...
. - Editorial Director, from 1962, Condé Nast Publications, United States and Europe
- numerous exhibitions of paintings and sculptures
Awards
- Gold Medal for Design, Exposition Internationale, Paris, 1937
- D.F.A.: Rhode Island School of DesignRhode Island School of DesignRhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
, Providence, 1980.
Publications
- La Femme Francaise dans l'Art, 1936. (in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
) - (Editor and designer) The Art and Technique of Color Photography: A Treasury of Color Photographs by the Staff Photographers of Vogue, House & Garden, Glamour, introduction by Aline B. Louchheim, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1951.
- The World in Vogue, Compiled by the Viking Press and Vogue ; Editors for Viking: Bryan Holme and Katharine Tweed ; Editors for Vogue: Jessica Daves and Alexander Liberman, New York : Viking Press, 1963.
- The Artist in His Studio, foreword by James Thrall Soby, Viking PressViking PressViking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
(New York, NY), 1960, revised edition, Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(New York, NY), 1988. - (Photographer) Greece, Gods, and Art, introduction by Robert GravesRobert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
, commentaries by Iris C. Love, Viking Press (New York, NY), 1968. - Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970 (exhibition), Garamond/Pridemark Press (Baltimore, MD), 1970.
- Introduction to Vogue Book of Fashion Photography 1919-1979, by Polly Devlin, New York 1979.
- Marlene: An Intimate Photographic Memoir, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.
- (Photographer) Campidoglio: Michelangelo's Roman Capitol, essay by Joseph BrodskyJoseph BrodskyIosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky , was a Russian poet and essayist.In 1964, 23-year-old Brodsky was arrested and charged with the crime of "social parasitism" He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and settled in America with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters...
, Random House (New York, NY), 1994. - (And photographer) Then: Photographs, 1925-1995, preface by Calvin Tomkins, selected and designed by Charles Churchward, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.
External links
- http://artscenecal.com/ArtistsFiles/LibermanA/LiebermanAFile/ALiberman0302.html
- http://www.stormking.org/AlexanderLiberman.html
- http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=4D88AC06-0937-E545-D68D35251EC23171
- Art Directors Club biography and portrait
- Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for Alexander Liberman, Getty Vocabulary Program. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California.
- Alexander Liberman photography archive, ca. 1925-ca. 1998. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California. Photographs made by Alexander Liberman. The collection contains ca. 8,000 photographic prints, 50,000 transparencies, 90,000 negatives, 38 books of contact sheets, and loose prints mounted on foam core. Subjects of the photographs fall into two groups, contemporary artists and European historical sites. The collection documents over 242 major European and American artists, such as Braque, Cézanne, Dali, de Kooning, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Matisse, Newman, Picasso, Rauschenberg, and Rothko.