Sculpting identity: Chana Orloff and her portraits

ii To the memory of my bubbe, Lillian Kotovsky, and to my parents who have taught me the importance of embracing my cultural heritage. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my Thesis Supervisor, Professor Craig Adcock, for the time and energy he has dedicated to assisting me in the completion of this thesis. My gratitude also goes to Professor Wallace Tomasini and Professor Dorothy Johnson for sitting on my Thesis Committee and providing invaluable feedback. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the rest of the Art History faculty at the University of Iowa who have provided the additional support, advice, and academic instruction necessary for the success of this project. iv ABSTRACT Chana Orloff, a prolific sculptor during the first half of the twentieth century, completed hundreds of portraits of her contemporaries during her lifetime. Scholars have examined these portraits more generally within the overall context of her work. Still, however, the scholarly discourse on the artist herself is limited, lacking an extensive analysis on the portraits themselves. Utilizing a selection of Orloff's portraits, this thesis seeks to understand her work in terms of the reconciliatory role played by portraiture in expressing various aspects of the artist's own identity. In particular, this analysis hopes to better understand the artist's personal and professional contacts in Paris as well as in Palestine. As an artist, woman, and Jew, Orloff's portraits grant insight into her own relationship with these categorizations and alignment with various trends within a feminist discourse as well as French and Zionist political movements. As such, this thesis takes into consideration multiple methodological approaches, making use of a bibliographical, formalist, feminist, and social art historical perspectives. Ultimately, this investigation hopes to reveal a fundamental intersection between Orloff's self-conception and the characterization of her surroundings. v PUBLIC ABSTRACT Chana Orloff, a prolific sculptor during the first half of the twentieth century, completed hundreds of portraits of her contemporaries during her lifetime. Scholars have examined these portraits more generally within the overall context of her work. Still, however, the scholarly discourse on the artist herself is limited, lacking an extensive analysis on the portraits themselves. Utilizing a selection of Orloff's portraits, this thesis seeks to understand her work in terms of the reconciliatory role played by portraiture in expressing various aspects of the artist's own identity. In particular, this analysis hopes to better understand the artist's personal and professional contacts in …