The Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund and the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai are pleased to invite the public the first-ever exhibition in Lithuania of works by famous Litvak designer and sculptor Michael Brenner. Brenner almost never exhibited his works during his lifetime and rarely invited anyone into his studios.
The exhibit called “Michael Brenner: Free Fall” will open at the Chaim Frenkel villa located at Vilniaus street no. 74 in Šiauliai at 5:30 P.M. on January 22. For more information, click on the links below.
https://www.facebook.com/events/434672691733388
According to the Lost Shtetl Museum of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund:
Michael Brenner was 16 when he arrived in Paris in 1901 to study art. He quickly established his first studio there which operated with some interruptions until 1962. Few people have actually seen it with their own eyes. Mainly because the sculptor didn’t allow visitors in. Usually only those who had a good reason were allowed in, such as people who had come to pose for Brenner.
Brenner met a number of interesting people when he lived in Paris whom he wanted to immortalize in sculpture. He was close friends, for example, with art collector and writer Gertrude Stein, author of the famous line “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” Apparently she spent entire weeks in Brenner’s studio enchanted by his talent. This photograph shows Gertrude Stein during one of her visits.
Brenner also made a portrait of magician, poet, mountain climber and sexual revolutionary Aleister Crowley. Renowned gynecologist and candidate for the Nobel Prize I. Rubin posed for him. The sculptor also had the wonderful opportunity to create a bust of Albert Einstein, an opportunity he never made use of.
We are showing these sculptures for the first time ever in Lithuania. We are opening, together with the Aušra Museum, an exhibition of Michael Brenner’s surviving sculptures at the Chaim Frankel villa in Šiauliai on January 27. Everyone is invited.
And:
It is likely you are only one of a few people ever to have seen this, because the artist showed his works to almost no one. “My father was very difficult, diffident and almost obsessional when it came to showing his work publicly, fearing that it would not be accepted, although other successful sculptors such as Jacques Lipschitz appreciated its value,” his son Joseph recalled.
Michael Brenner grew up in a creative Jewish family in Šiauliai. His parents manufactured stamps and seals, jewelry and gravestones. His eldest brother Victor became a famous designer and created the image for the American one-cent coin. In 1895 Michael Brenner brought his entire family to the U.S. Living in America, Brenner continued down the path of art so dear to him from childhood and studied at famous art academies in New York and later Paris.
Michael Brenner’s life circled around Paris and New York, the cities where he had established his studios. His sculptures are almost painting-like, subtle and exceptional for their expression and emotionality. Finally, after many years, we can view these works in the flesh. We are opening the first exhibition ever in Lithuania of that artist’s works at the Chaim Frenkel villa in Šiauliai on January 27. Everyone is invited.