Bernard Reder

Bernard Reder (29 June 1897 – 7 September 1963) was an artist, sculptor, etcher, engraver and architect, born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, (Chernivtsi, Bokovina) part of Austria before World War II and a centre of Jewish and Hasidic culture. His subjects were drawn from Jewish folklore, from Greek mythology, the Bible, and also from François Rabelais.

Reder is quoted as having said, "We were born already drunk with fantasy", referring to his early life in Bukovina. The son of a Jewish innkeeper, at 17 he was conscripted into the Austrian army and spent World War I in the trenches. He went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. While working on his sculptures in his spare time, he supported himself by carving cemetery monuments. He moved to Prague in 1930 because of antisemitic demonstrations. In 1935 Reder had his first solo exhibition at the gallery of Manes, an association of artists in Prague. This exhibition created a sensation and was widely published by newspapers in Prague, Paris, Wienna and Basel. Most sculptures were sold.

Two years later, in 1937, he moved to Paris and became a good friend of the sculptor and painter Aristide Maillol. In 1940 he exhibited at the Wildenstein Gallery in Paris. Later that year, Reder was forced to flee Paris to escape from the Nazis, and Maillol secured a passage for him and his wife to travel to Spain, where he was imprisoned for illegal entry.

Bernard Reder died in 1963 in New York. His last four years were very productive, producing over thirty-five bronze sculptures. He created many of these directly in wax using a lost-wax casting technique he had learned in Italy.

Galleries Reder's works are currently held in many collections, including the following: Whitney Museum of American Art Museum of Modern Art National Gallery of Art Brooklyn Museum New York Public Library Art Institute of Chicago Museu d'Arte Moderna in São Paulo, Brazil Hofstra University, Long Island, New York