id: 93171 accession number: 1926.1548 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1926.1548 updated: 2024-03-26 01:56:04.530000 Balalaika Player, 1925. Alexander Blazys (American, 1894–1963). Bronze; overall: 31.2 x 19.8 x 9.3 cm (12 5/16 x 7 13/16 x 3 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 1926.1548 title: Balalaika Player title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1925 creation date earliest: 1925 creation date latest: 1925 current location: creditline: Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection copyright: --- culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland technique: bronze department: American Painting and Sculpture collection: American - Sculpture type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Alexander Blazys (American, 1894–1963) - sculptor Cleveland’ s leading modernist sculptor of the 1920s, Alexander Blazys was born in Poniewiesz, Lithuania. After graduating from military school, he studied sculpture for seven years at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. He visited Paris frequently during this period and in 1920 decided not to return to the Soviet Union because of the political restrictions placed on modernist art. Working in Paris, he received critical acclaim for sculptures exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants. In 1923 he immigrated to Detroit, where exhibited and received his first American commissions. The following year he moved to New York City but, upon the invitation of a friend, settled in Cleveland in 1925. Blazys’ gracefully stylized sculptures of East European folk dancers and musicians in the 1926 May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art established his reputation as “the sculptor of rhythms.” He was immediately embraced by the Cleveland art community, receiving numerous commissions for portrait busts, from which he earned his primary income. He was head of the sculpture department at the Cleveland School of Art, 1926–38. In 1927 his large bronze figural work City Fettering Nature was installed on the grounds of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Around this time Blazys joined the staff of the Cowan Pottery Studio as a designer and encouraged the studio to experiment with ceramic sculpture. Cleveland’s Eastman Bolton Gallery sponsored his first solo exhibition (1929), and his works subsequently appeared in group shows in Cleveland, Chicago, and Philadelphia though he remained active in the local art scene during the 1930s, his popularity waned, and in the early 1940s, after com plet ing a Works Progress Administration commission to create stone relief carvings for the Woodhill Homes housing project, he moved to New Jersey and worked for a series of ceramic firms creating molds for mass-produced figurines. Blazys returned to Cleveland in 1952. Selected References Fort, Ilene Susan.
"Transformations in Cleveland Art" (CMA, 1996), p. 223 --- measurements: Overall: 31.2 x 19.8 x 9.3 cm (12 5/16 x 7 13/16 x 3 11/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The May Show: 8th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen opening date: 1926-05-04T04:00:00 The May Show: 8th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-June 7, 1926). title: Art Deco opening date: 1971-06-06T04:00:00 Art Deco. Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 6-August 1, 1971). title: Art Deco opening date: 1973-12-02T05:00:00 Art Deco. The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (organizer) (December 2, 1973-January 27, 1974). title: The Cleveland Institute of Art: 100 Years opening date: 1982-12-22T05:00:00 The Cleveland Institute of Art: 100 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 22, 1982-January 30, 1983). title: Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919-1940 opening date: 1989-06-28T04:00:00 Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919-1940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 28-September 10, 1989). title: The Human Figure in American Sculpture: A Question of Modernity opening date: 1995-02-23T05:00:00 The Human Figure in American Sculpture: A Question of Modernity. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (organizer) (February 23-May 14, 1995); Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (June 22-September 10, 1995); Wichita Art Museum (October 19, 1995-January 7, 1996); National Academy of Design Museum and School of Fine Arts (February 15-May 5, 1996). title: Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946 opening date: 1996-05-19T04:00:00 Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996). title: Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age opening date: 2004-03-28T00:00:00 Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Alexander Blazys Entry Card to 1926 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMS01065/ Hoffman, Jay, Dee Driscole, and Mary Clare Zahler. A Study in Regional Taste: The May Show, 1919-1975. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977. page number: Reproduced: P. 47, no. 29; Mentioned: P. 78, no. 29 url: Robinson, William H., et. al. Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: p. 98, fig. 104; Mentioned: p. 244 url: Clark, Edna Maria. Ohio Art and Artists. Richmond, VA: Garrett and Massie, 1975. page number: Mentioned: p. 414 url: Bassett, Mark T., R. Guy Cowan, and Victoria Naumann. Cowan Pottery and the Cleveland School. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1997. page number: Reproduced: p. 113, pl. 312 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.1548/1926.1548_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.1548/1926.1548_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.1548/1926.1548_full.tif