Israel Levitan

Israel Levitan (June 13, 1912 – May 17, 1982) was an American abstract expressionist sculptor, born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Known as a sculptor, he also produced paintings, graphics and fine art works on paper.

The art critics of ARTnews selected his 1959 exhibition at the Barone Gallery in New York City, as one of the 10 best one-man exhibitions of the year. After World War II Levitan was involved in the New York art community, and participated in numerous exhibitions. In 1934 Levitan settled in Detroit, Michigan where he took a job as an auto worker.

Hofmann, recognizing the three-dimensional aspects of Levitan's paintings, suggested that Levitan experiment with sculpture. Hoffman set out to find an appropriate teacher for his protégée and shortly thereafter Levitan commenced sculpture studies at the atelier of the French master Ossip Zadkine in Paris from 1950 to 1951.

After returning to New York, Levitan set up a studio on East 9th Street and was quickly assimilated into the art scene, eventually becoming Vice President of the American Abstract Artists group. He exhibited his work in the Tenth Street galleries, along with such contemporaries as Gabriel Kohn, Raoul Hague, Sidney Geist, and Louise Nevelson.

Exhibitions Levitan had one-man shows at the Artists' Gallery, the Wayhe Gallery, the Barone Gallery and the Grand Central Moderns all in New York City; at the University of California, Berkeley, the Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Levitan's work has been shown at numerous museums, including the Musee d’Art Moderne, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Riverside Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, the Detroit Art Institute, Galerie Claude Bernard, the Guild Hall Museum, the Phillips Andover Academy, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Ohio State University, the Trica Kalis Gallery, the Tanager Gallery, the Stable Gallery and many others in New York City.

Levitan's bird flight-themed sculpture "Enrapture" appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art's 'sculpture annual' in 1952. Additionally, upon New York City's Barone Gallery reopening at a new Madison Avenue location in 1957 it had an exhibition of Giuseppe Guerreschi paintings and Levitan's sculptures. The New York Times reviewed the exhibition and praised Levitan's works,