Metamorfozy Apolla w cylindrze
Apollo’s Metamorphosis in o Top Hat. On Elia Nadelman’s Art.

Summary/Abstract: Elias Nadelman was born in Warsaw in 1982. His family wanted him to become a singer. He studied art in Warsaw and Kraków. He exhibited his satirical drawing entitled ‘The March of the Avantgarde’ at the Krywult Gallery in Warsaw. In 1904, he went to Munich. He visited galleries and read modernist art magazines. He moved to Paris and was introduced to local artistic circles by Tadeusz and Alexander Natanson, Adolf Basler and Mieczys³aw Goldberg. Goldberg wrote about modern art and published his articles in London, Lwów, and New York (e.g., in ‘Camera Work’ edited by Alfred Stieglitz). In Paris, Nadelman used to meet with Leopold Gottlieb, Mela Muter, Gustaw Gwozdecki, Szymon Mondzein, Eugeniusz Zak, Jerzy Merkel, Moj¿esz Kisling, Louis Marcoussin and Alicja Halicka. He was a co-organizer of the Polish Artists’ Society in Paris. He exhibited his sculpture at Berthe Weill and Eugen Druet’s galleries. Helena Rubinstein decorated her studio with Nadelman’s sculpture, and she helped him to go to New York. He married Viola Spiess Flannery. He committed a suicide in 1946. He used to sculpt naked goddesses with decorative coiffures, forest nymphs dressed in modern dresses, and male torsos in top hats. He liked circus, dance and ballet motifs. His paper-mach figures resembled Tanagra clay sculpture. He was believed to influence Picasso and Brancusi’s work. When he and his wife enjoyed financial prosperity, they collected folk art, but they had to sell their collection when they lost their fortune.

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