Nathan Rapoport

{{short description|Polish-born Israeli-American sculptor and painter}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Nathan Rapoport
נתן רפופורט

| image = Natan_Rapaport_Sima_Rapaport_1937.jpg

| imagesize =

| alt =

| caption = Natan Rapoport with his wife Sima in his Warsaw studio (1937)

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|11|07|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Warsaw, Congress Poland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|06|04|1911|11|07|mf=y}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| field = Sculpture

| movement =

| works = Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, Scroll of Fire

| patrons =

| influenced =

| awards =

| elected =

| website =

| education = Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw

}}

Nathan Rapoport ({{Langx|he|נתן רפופורט}}; 1911–1987) was a Warsaw-born Jewish sculptor and painter, later a resident of Israel and then the United States.

Biography

Natan Yaakov Rapoport was born in Warsaw, Poland.{{Cite web |title=Rapoport Natan |url=https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/biogramy/5913-rapoport-natan |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=Wirtualny Sztetl |publisher=Polin Museum of Jewish History}} In 1936, he won a scholarship to study in France and Italy. He fled to the Soviet Union when the Nazi Germans invaded Poland. The Soviets initially provided him with a studio but then forced him to work as a manual laborer. When the war ended, he returned to Poland to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and immigrated to Israel.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/06/obituaries/nathan-rapoport-sculptor-of-works-on-holocaust-dies.html |title=Nathan Rapoport, Sculptor of works on Holocaust, dies |work=The New York Times |date=1987-06-06 |accessdate=2019-08-06}} In 1959, he moved to the United States. He lived in New York City until his death in 1987.

Monumental art

His sculptures in public places, with the year they were installed in, include:

  • Monument to the Ghetto Heroes (1948), bronze, Warsaw, Poland
  • Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1976), bronze, at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; a slightly modified replica of the Warsaw monumentElsby, Liz. [https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/warsaw-memorial-personal-interpretation.html Rapoport's Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – a Personal Interpretation]. Yad Vashem website. accessed 19 Oct 2021.
  • The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, bronze
  • The Last March, bronze
  • Monument to Mordechai Anielewicz (1951), at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, Israel[https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA-Archive/2001/Pages/Monuments%20in%20Israel%20Commemorating%20the%20Holocaust.aspx Monuments in Israel Commemorating the Holocaust], Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, 3 June 2001, accessed 19 Oct 2021.
  • Monument to Six Million Jewish Martrys (1964), at the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Scroll of Fire (1971) in the Forest of the Martyrs near Jerusalem
  • Liberation (Holocaust memorial) (1985), bronze, Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey
  • Korczak's Last Walk at the Park Avenue Synagogue, New York, NY.
  • Ghetto Square Monument at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel. https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/warsaw-memorial-personal-interpretation.html

Gallery

Image:Warsaw Ghetto Monument 2021.jpg|Monument to the Ghetto Heroes (1948) in Warsaw, west side

Image:2023 Warszawa Pomnik Bohaterów Getta od tyłu, 1.jpg|Warsaw monument, east side

Image:Pomnik Bohaterow Getta 002.jpg|Menorah from the Warsaw monument

Image:"The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising" (2819083773).jpg|The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1976), bronze, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel

Image:'The Last March', bronze sculpture by Natan Yaakov Rapoport (1911-77), Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.jpg|The Last March (1976), bronze, part of the Yad Vashem memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Image:2016 WLM - OVEDC - YAD MORDECHAI - 081.jpg|Monument to Mordechai Anielewicz (1951) at Yad Mordechai, Israel

Image:Rapoport negba.jpg|Kibbutz Negba, memorial to the participants in the 1948 battles

Image:ScrollOfFireJune202023 03.jpg|Scroll of Fire (1971), Forest of the Martyrs near Jerusalem

References

{{reflist}}

Further reading

  • Coen, Paolo, «L’artista reagisce in modo artistico. Questa è la sua arma». Riflessioni di valore introduttivo sul rapporto arte-Shoah, da Alexander Bogen e Nathan Rapoport a Richard Serra, in Vedere l'Altro, vedere la Shoah, with an appendix by Angelika Schallenberg, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2012, pp. 6–68
  • Gilbert, Martin. (1987), The Holocaust, New York, Random House, 1987, 317–324.
  • Sohar, Zvi, Fighters Memorial, Monuments to the Fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Sifriat Poalim, Workers' Book Guild, 1964.
  • Yaffe, Richard, Nathan Rapoport Sculptures and Monuments, New York, Shengold Publishers, 1980.