Timeline

1891

Chaim Jacob Lipchitz born on August 22, in Druskieniki, Lithuania. He is the first of six children to Abraham Lipchitz, a young building contractor, and Rachael Leah Krinsky

1906 - 1909

Attends high school in Vilna

1909 - 1910

Studies with Jean-Antoine Ingalbert at the École des Beaux-Arts as a 'free pupil'

1909

Arrives in Paris

First prize - sculpture, Académie Julian, Paris, France

1913

Receives praise for Woman and Gazelles exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Meets Picasso and other Cubist painters through Diego Rivera. Creates his first proto Cubist sculptures. Attends the infamous premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Rites of Spring.

1915

Meets and lives with poet Berthe Kitrosser whom he later marries

1916

Signs a contract with the dealer Léonce Rosenberg who gives him a monthly stipend. Becomes a close friend of Juan Gris

1924

Becomes a French citizen

1926

Joins the gallery of Jeanne Bucher

1930

First large retrospective exhibition of 100 works is held at Jean Bucher’s Galérie de la Renaissance, Paris. The show is favorably received. Begins to explore biblical themes and the image of mother and child.

1934

Exhibits a large scale plaster of David and Goliath at the Salon des Indépendents, Paris. His mother dies.

1935

From August through October, he takes a trip to Russia to visit family. The artist has his first important exhibition in the United States, held at the Brummer Gallery, New York, but is unable to attend.

1936 - 1937

The French government commissions him to create a monumental plaster sculpture (Prometheus Strangling the Vulture) for the entrance to the Science Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair, the same exposition where Picasso's Guernica and Gonzáles's Monserrat are shown in the Spanish Pavilion

1938

Renews acquaintance with Gertrude Stein and produces two bronze portraits

1940

In May he flees with Berthe to Toulouse when the Germans occupy Paris

1941

He seeks asylum in the United States and with the help of his American friends, he arrives in New York on June 13. Joseph Brummer, now exclusively dealing in antiques, introduces the artist to Curt Valentin of the Buchholz Gallery. Mr. Valentin, who becomes his New York dealer, immediately begins to sell his work. He rents a studio in New York City on Washington Square South.

1942

Begins to exhibit regularly at the Buchholz Gallery

1946

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, French Republic, Paris, France

1948

Married Yulla Halberstadt. His only child, Lolya Rachel, is born

1952

George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal Award - Prometheus Strangling the Vulture, Pennsylvania Academy of Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1955

Nôtre Dame de Liesse is completed for Nôtre Dame de Toute Grâce at Assy

1958

Receives Creative Arts Award from Brandeis University

1961 - 1962

He begins to be represented by the Otto Gerson Gallery, New York (later the Marlborough Gerson and presently the Marlborough Gallery, Inc.).

1963

Travels for the first time to Israel

1965

Receives an award for cultural achievement from Boston University and is made an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York

1966

Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, exhibits Images from Italy. Receives Gold Medal from the Academy of Arts and Letters, New York

1969

Receives the Einstein Commemorative Award of Merit from the Medical Center of Yeshiva University, New York, and Medal of Achievement from American Institute of Architects.

1971

The artist travels to Israel for the retrospective exhibit at the Tel Aviv Museum which inaugurates the new museum

1973

The artist dies on the island of Capri and is later buried on Har Hamenuhot, Jerusalem