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All
texts taken from Dorothy Robbins' book:
"Heartland Beating"
I
want to connect some of my writings with
my sculptures during the years 1991-1997.
My struggle with progressive muscular dystrophy
became a life-death issue in my work.
It took the form, during these particular years,
of working through hours of self-forgetfulness
while sitting in my studio rocking chair.
The weakness of the physical body challenged
the motivating spirit as both often moved in opposite
directions. Can the spirit defy the body and rise to
greater heights as if it is immortal?
Working
in wax is my old-age material.
Even the ancients of old applied it
for brilliant images in durable bronze.
It became my life-line.
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"The
Ladder" Bronze 1992, h. 46 cm.
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"Tad
and Son" 1995, terra-cotta, h. 41.5 cm.
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Quiet,
dear heart
sitting
without pain.
The creation will come
like a breath of life.
The clay will help.
Feel
the sound of sweet music
its resonating harmony
to soften the dissonance
so deeply within.
The clay will help.
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"Echoes
of the Past III" 1992-3, bronze, h. 97 cm.
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Echoes
of the Past
The
silence becomes a piercing soundlessness,
yet in the stillness there is peace.
In the vast emptiness,
echoes of the past resound.
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"Unicycle"
1975, Welded brass, bicycle parts. h. 185 cm. Coll. Dr. Marilyn
Safir, Haifa.
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figure has for me endless expressive possibilities. Sometimes
my concept of the figure is so vivid that it dictates
clearly what l must do. At other times my image changes
as working realities alter my vision. Then, acknowledging
the unique vitality of the sculptural material itself,
l move along in company with it to try to find a finality,
a sculptured home for the feeling inherent in the concept.
In
rendering my concept, I often rearrange my own physical
positions so as to find the bodily counterpart of the
emotion. I look for combinations from all the marvelous
variations of movement and form relationships. Letting
my body drop into a feeling of the moment, l explore
my body arrangement – a hand touching, the fingers
spreading, the head turning, the toes curling.
My
sculptural concepts are spaded out from the inside of
myself, and look for a translation of them. At times,
my feelings are too complicated and it becomes necessary
to simplify them and yet maintain their original force.
The existence of the finished work embodies my final
choices from the whole world at my disposal.
Creating
sculpture is reaffirming life for me. This becomes a
motivating drive sufficient for a lifetime.
Dorothy
Robbins
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"Night
Runner" 1981. Welded copper, 167x180 cm.
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"Balance
Act" 1981. Welded copper, 196x95x58 cm.
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"The
Surreal Peace Chair" 15.7.1995. Bronze. h. 320 cm. Ein
Hod Village Entrance.
E-mail
For
information, more art work or purchasing.
Biography
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1920
Born in Lakewood, Ohio. Youngest of three daughters,
born to Ella and Benjamin Schochen who emigrated from
Russia to Cleveland in 1905.
1938-1942
Studies at Ohio State University. B.S. degree with distinction
1942
Marries psychologist Irving Robbins
1945-1947
Studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan, and Cincinnati Academy of Art
1948-1950
Teaches ceramic sculpture at Cincinnati Art Museum,
Ohio
1949
Purchase Award, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
1950
Moves to New York
1951
Becomes member of Sculpture Center, New York Meets Jacques
Lipchitz
1953,
1954
First Prizes, Long Island Artist’s League, New
York
1954
Daughter Dena born
First one-person exhibition, Sculpture Center, New York
Travels extensively through Europe. Meets sculptors
Henry Moore and Jacob Epstein.
Invited to be Moore’s assistant
1956
Meets sculptors Alexander Archipenko and
Saul Baizerman
1961
Audubon Artists Purchase Award, New York
Travels to Mexico and works in bronze
at San Miguel Allende
1962
Invited sculptor, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York
'Job"
1979.
Album, 18 colored woodcuts with text (edition of 6)
36x27 cm. Collections: Kunsthalle Nuremberg; Graphik
Kabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Fairmont Temple,
Cleveland; the artist
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1963
Sculpture Award, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts
1963-1965
Graduate studies at Hunter College, New York.
M.A. degree in Art
1966
Polly Gillen Prize, National Association of Women Artists,
New York
1966-1971
Assistant Professor of Sculpture at New York
University College, New Paltz, New York
1967
Produces educational film: Bronze Welding in Art with
Dorothy Robbins. Center for Instructional Resources,
New York State University College, New Paltz.
1967,
1969
Awarded Grants, New York State University Research Foundation,
New York
1969
Visits Israel for the first time. Meets sculptor Itzhak
Danzinger.
Produces educational film together with Susan Wisherd:
Bronze Casting from Lost-Wax, Center for Instructional
Resources, New York State University College, New Paltz
1971
Immigrates to Israel and settles in Haifa
1972-1984
Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at the Art Department,
University of Haifa
1973-1976
Chairman of the Art Department, University of Haifa
1975
Plans and coordinates symposium on Surrealism,
Art Department, University of Haifa.
Travels to Italy and meets sculptor Giacomo Manzu
1978
Awarded British Council Grant, London
Member of the Artists Village Ein Hod
1982
Hermann Struck Prize, Haifa Municipality
1997
Published book: "Heartland Beating Sculptures and
Writings" 1991-1997
1999
Book of Poetry: "Beats from Heartland"
12.12.1999
Died in Ein Hod.
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E-mail
For
information, more art work or purchasing.
One-Person
Exhibitions
1954
Sculpture Center, New York.
1961
Cober Gallery, New York
1963
Waverly Gallery, New York
Gramercy Arts Theater, New York
1964
Donnell Library, New York
Fisher Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Roko Gallery, New York
1966
Sodom and Gomorrah, Union of American Hebrew Congregations,
New York
1967
Mari Galleries, Woodstock, New York
Albertus Magnus College, New Haven, Connecticut
1968
Roko Gallery, New York
Garden Exhibition, Mari Galleries, Woodstock,
New York
1970
Glass Gallery, New York
1977
Old Jaffa Gallery, Jaffa
1978
Job, woodcuts and wood carvings, Auditorium, Haifa
1982
Circus Performers, Herzliya Museum
Circus Performers, Wilfrid Israel Museum,
Kibbuz Hazorea
1984
A Post-Nuclear Landscape (installation),
Herzliya Museum
1986
Covered Lives – A Still-life Series, Artists
House,
Jerusalem
Covered Lives – A Still-life Series,
Wilfrid Israel Museum, Kibbutz Hazorea
1987
Past Places Revisited, Mishkan LeOmanut, Museum of
Art, Kibbutz Ein Harod.
Public
Collections
Cincinnati
Art Museum, Ohio
Cincinnati YMCA, Ohio
Gramercy Arts Theater, New York
Lincoln Farm Camp, Roscoe, New York
Jewish Memorial Park, Livingston, New Jersey
Post-Graduate Center of Psychotherapy, New York
Apartment lobby, London Terrace, Chelsea, New York
Apartment lobby, Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York
Fairmont Temple, Cleveland, Ohio
“Savitri House”, Sri Aurobindo Learning
Center, Baca,
Colorado
Kunsthalle, Nuremberg
Graphik Kabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Herzliya Museum
Shabbetai Levy Day-Care Center, Haifa.
Givataim Municipal Theater
Selected
Bibliography
Books
Hants
Havant (editor), Who’s Who in Art. The Art Trade
Press, 1974
Hart
Day Leavitt, The Writer’s Eye. Bantam books,
New York, 1968
John
Lynch, Metal Sculpture. The Studio-Crowell,
New York, 1957.
Reprinted by Viking Press, New York, 1957
Who’s
Who of American Women.
Marquis Who’s Who, Chicago, 1970-1971
Catalogues
Robbins, Sculpture Center, May 1954
Dorothy
Robbins, Cober Gallery, January-February 1961
Dorothy
Robbins, Wood Carving 1971-1977, Old Jaffa Gallery,
September-October 1977
Dorothy
Robbins, Herzliya Museum, May-June 1982
Dorothy
Robbins, Sculpture, Covered Lives – A Still-
Life Series, Artists House, Jerusalem, March-April
1986
Dorothy
Robbins, Bronze Sculpture, Past Places
Revisited, Mishkan LeOmanut, Museum of Art,
Kibbutz Ein Harod, May 1987
Selected
Publications in Journals and Newspapers
“Sculptors
Turn to Welder’s Torch”. New York Times
Book Review, 7.11.53
The New York Times, 8.11.53
“Eight Women Welders. ARTnews, November 53 The
Philadelphia Inquirer, 7.3.54
Howard
Devree, “About Art and Artists”. The New
York Times, 5.5.54
New York Herald Tribune, 10.5.59
New York Sunday Mirror, June 59
The New York Times Book Review, 19.2.61
William
Wolf, “A Career is Shaped”.
Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine, 12.3.61
The New York Times Book Review, 10.6.62 Look, 6.11.62
New York Herald Tribune, 17.10.64
The New York Times Book Review, 15.8.65 Park East,
New York, 9.9.65
The New York Times Book Review, 24.4.66 The New York
Times Book Review, 7.7.68 “Robbins at Roko”.
Park East, New York, 21.3.68 ARTnews, May 65
E.
Harris, “Humor’s Place”. Weekend, The
Jerusalem Post Magazine, 8.10.82
E.
Harris, “Teachers Lessons”. Weekend, The
Jerusalem Post Magazine, 16.12.83
Joseph
Hoffman, “Haifa Artists Mellowing With Age?”
Now – Israel’s Weekly Newspaper, 22.12.82
Angela
Levine, “Past Places Revisited”. Weekend,
The Jerusalem Post Magazine, 10.7.87
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Group
Exhibitions
1947-1949
Annual Exhibitions. Artists of Cincinnati and
Vicinity, Cincinnati Museum of Art
1948
13th National Ceramic Exhibition (traveling exhibition
included), Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, New York
1949
14th National Ceramic Exhibition, Syracuse
Museum of Fine Arts, New York
1950
Biannual Sculpture Exhibition, Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
1951-1960
Regular member in group exhibitions, Sculpture Center,
New York
1953
Women Welders, Sculpture Center, New York
1955
Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati Art Museum
1955-1970
Annual Exhibitions, Audubon Artists, National Gallery
of Design, New York
1956
Contemporary Sculpture, Staten Island Museum, New
York
1956-1966
Annual Exhibitions, American Art at Mid-century, North
Essex Section, National Council of Jewish Women, Orange,
New Jersey
1959
Personal and Impersonal, Terrain Gallery,
New York
1960-1966
Highgate Gallery, Montciair, New Jersey
Annual Exhibitions, National Association of Women
Artists, National Academy Galleries, Lever House,
Pepsi-Cola Building, New York
1962
45th Anniversary Exhibition, The Brookline Society
of Artists, Riverside Museum, New York Sculpture in
the Garden, Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester,
Vermont
Annual May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art
1963-1968
Annual Exhibitions, American Society of Contemporary
Artists, Lever House, New York.
1964
West-Side Artists, Riverside Museum, New York
1965
Art for Science, Hilton Hotel, New York
New York World’s Fair, Queens, New York
1967
Mari Galleries, Larchmont and Woodstock, New
York
Faculty Exhibition, New York State University
College, New Paltz, New York
1968
Mari Galleries, Larchmont and Woodstock, New
York
State-wide Faculty Exhibition, The New York State
University Colleges, Albany, New York
1970
Sculpture Center, New York
1971
Glass Gallery, New York
1972
Faculty Exhibition, University of Haifa
1973
New Members, The Israel Painters and Sculptors Association,
Chagall House, Haifa
1975
Faculty Exhibition, University of Haifa
1983
A Post-Nuclear Landscape (installation), Artists of
the Art Department, The Art Gallery, University of
Haifa
1984
A Pear and an Apple, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, Tel
Aviv Museum
1987
Artists from Israel, Kurfurstliches Palais, Trier
Kunstlussglung, NRW, Dusseldorf
13 Artists from Ein Hod, Artist House, Tel Aviv.
"Reflection"
1982. Polychromed poplar wood, copper, mirror, 105x32x15
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Management
of estate: Dena Robbins-Deckel
24 David Remez st. Tel Aviv 62192
Cel: 0507564260 , Res: 0773456620
E-mail
For
information, more art work or purchasing.
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