Clara Seley

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Clara Kalnitsky Seley (July 15, 1905 – July 2, 2003) was an American artist and sculptor.

Biography[edit]

Born in Kiev,[1] she came to the United States in 1911 and was raised and educated in Newark, New Jersey.[2]

Following a career in modeling[1] and later in the rare book departments of Bamberger's department store in Newark and Brentano's Bookstore in New York,[2] she met and married Jason Seley [de] (May 20, 1919 – June 23, 1983),[3] an American sculptor, in 1942. The couple moved to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 1946, where Jason would teach under a U. S. Government grant[4] and have three solo exhibitions at the Centre d'Art (in 1946, 1948, and 1949), along with several commissions.[5] Clara, a self-taught artist, taught dance while in Haiti[6] and began sculpting during this period. Working primarily in wood, mainly Haitian mahogany, as well as bronze and aluminum, her sculptures mostly took the forms of abstract torsos and heads.

Following their years in Haiti, the couple lived in Paris and Germany. Clara was first represented in the United States by Kraushaar Galleries in New York,[7] although her paintings and drawings were shown by the Schainen Stern Gallery in 1960.[8] Jason taught at Hofstra University from 1953 to 1965. Clara would later work in various media, including pastel and watercolor, in the 1940s and 1950s. She received artist's fellowships to Yaddo in 1987 and 1990. Jason, who received his BA in sculpture at Cornell University in 1940,[9] began teaching sculpture there in 1966, becoming chair of the Department of Art (1968–73) and dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (1980–83).

Clara would give several of her artworks to Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Among their other gifts to the Johnson Museum were portraits of the couple by Waldo Peirce and Lotte Jacobi. The long-planned Jason and Clara Seley Sculpture Court, featuring three sculptures by Jason, was completed at Cornell in December 2017.[10]

Selected solo exhibitions[edit]

Exhibitions with Jason Seley[edit]

  • Country Art Gallery, 1961, 1965
  • Upstairs Gallery, Ithaca, NY, 1976
  • Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, 1977

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Claiborne, Craig (November 11, 1965). "When Sculptor Isn't Carving in Wood, She's Dishing Up Stuffed Cabbage". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b "Clara K. Seley's Obituary on Ithaca Journal". Ithaca Journal. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  3. ^ Cook, Joan (1983-06-24). "JASON SELEY DIES; TAUGHT SCULPTURE". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  4. ^ Seley, Clara; Seley, Jason; Everson Museum of Art (1977-01-01). Clara Seley, Jason Seley: sculpture: [exhibition at the] Everson Museum of Art, January 22 – February 27, 1977. Syracuse, N.Y.: Everson Museum of Art. OCLC 27942795.
  5. ^ TWA, LINDSAY J (2016-01-01). Visualizing haiti in u.s. culture, 1910–1950. Place of publication not identified: ROUTLEDGE. ISBN 978-1-138-24813-7. OCLC 957681953.
  6. ^ Peter L. Auer; Zevi Blum; H. Peter Kahn; Milton R. Konvitz (1983). "Jason Seley: May 20, 1919 — June 23, 1983" (PDF). Cornell University. hdl:1813/19104.
  7. ^ "The Clara and Jason Seley Sculpture Court". Cornell Architecture, Art & Planning Newsletter. Fall 1991. pp. 1, 3. OCLC 25160712.
  8. ^ "Many Treasures in Busy Art Week". New York Times. October 30, 1960. p. 119. ProQuest 1962586881.
  9. ^ Altschuler, Glenn C; Kramnick, Isaac (2014-01-01). Cornell: a history, 1940–2015. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4425-8. OCLC 879583389.
  10. ^ "Bumper crop of Seley sculptures installed near Sibley | Cornell Chronicle". news.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  11. ^ "The New Yorker Digital Edition: Apr 18, 1964". archives.newyorker.com. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  12. ^ "Exhibitions at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1968–2003" (PDF). Retrieved 11 March 2017.

External links[edit]

  • Clara Seley. Untitled, (before 1980). Pastel. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Collection, Cornell University.
  • Clara Seley. Untitled (Three Animals), 1948. Watercolor. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Collection, Cornell University.
  • Clara Seley. Untitled, ca. 1955. Pastel and graphite. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Collection, Cornell University.
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