Born: 1892 Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (now Moldova and Ukraine)
Year of Migration to the UK: 1934
Other name/s: Avraham Melnikov, Avram Melnikov, Awahahm Melnikoff, Abraham Melnikoff, Abram Melnikoff, Avraam Melnikov, Abram Melnikov
Biography
Sculptor and writer Abraham Melnikov was born to a Jewish family in Bessarabia (a historical region in modern-day Moldova and Ukraine), then part of the Russian Empire, in 1892. In 1909, he read medicine in Vienna, sent by his parents, but spent his evenings studying at the Vienna Art Academy. Shortly after, he left his studies to travel and moved to the USA, where he entered the Chicago School of Art in 1917. In 1918, Melnikov volunteered for the Jewish Legion and later travelled to the British Mandate of Palestine via Egypt. After he obtained his discharge from the army, and remaining in Palestine, he dedicated himself fully to art, gaining commissions for monuments including memorials to General Allenby in Beersheba and to Ahad Ha’am in Tel Aviv. In 1922, the Hebrew Artists' Association was founded under the presidency of Boris Schatz, with Melnikov serving as his deputy. Throughout the 1920s, Melnikov regularly exhibited his work at the Association's exhibitions. He gained acceptance within British ruling circles and achieved a prominent position within the local art community. In 1934, he completed work on the memorial commemorating the Battle of Tel Hai. Melnikov's statue, the first monument of its kind to be erected in the region, is commonly known as the Roaring Lion.
Melnikov left for London in 1934, invited by lawyer and Zionist leader Harry Sacher to create portrait busts of his family, and where he remained for the next 25 years (Weissblei, 'The Story of a Sculpture'). While in London he executed portrait heads of many prominent personalities, including politicians Winston Churchill and his daughter, Sarah Churchill, Ernest Bevin, Mordecai Eliash and Lord Allenby. In 1937 he was commissioned by Ben Uri to make a bust of the Society's Chairman, Adolph Michaelson Ben Uri Collection). He also wrote both poetry and prose. In 1935 Melnikov exhibited a group of portrait busts, studies, and descriptive statuettes at the Bloomsbury Gallery. An exhibition of his work was held at the Beaux-Arts Gallery in London the following year, receiving positive reviews in the press. The Manchester Guardian described Melnikov as ‘the most notable sculptor in Palestine’ and noted that ‘his work is marked by considerable vitality and versatility […] Especially arresting in this exhibition are the fine frenzy of St. Paul Preaching, the powerful torso of Judas Maccabaeus, and the gaunt helplessness of a more than lifesize figure of a navvy, entitled Unemployed (5 June 1936, p. 10). The show was praised in the Jewish Chronicle, which commented that ‘Mr. Melnikoff’s work as a sculptor was vigorous in the extreme, interesting in every aspect, and, above all, had that supreme quality, life’ (5 June 1936, p. 22). Melnikov also gave talks on art, including ‘The Jew in Art’ at the opening of the fourth day of the Jewish Book Week and Exhibition in Manchester Central Library (1938) and ‘The Future of Art in Israel’ at the Jewish Cultural Centre, London (1952). He occasionally contributed articles to the Jewish Chronicle, on topics including Mount Moriah and the paintings of Rembrandt. His wife, Charlotte, was painted by both husband and wife émigrés, Julius Rosenbaum and Adele Reifenberg, in the same sitting in 1945 (Rosenbaum's version is in the Ben Uri Collection), and she regularly showed paintings at Ben Uri. In 1940, during the Blitz, Melnikov’s studio and most of its contents were destroyed during an air raid. A photograph of Melnikov observing the damage to his studio with actress Dorothy Dickinson (whose bust he had executed) was published in Tatler and Bystander, the caption noting that the likeness of Dickinson, and an unfinished portrait of Toscanini, were among the few works having survived (13 November 1940, p. 221). In 1959, he moved to Israel.
Abraham Melnikov died in Israel in 1960, from a heart attack, and was buried alongside his wife near the Roaring Lion statue. A posthumous exhibition of Melnikov's work was held at the University of Haifa, Israel, in 1982. In 1984, a stamp designed by Assaf Berg was issued in Israel commemorating Melnikov's iconic monument. Melnikov's works is represented in the UK public domain in the Ben Uri Collection.
Related books
- Gil Weissblei, 'The Story of a Sculpture: The Roaring Lion of Tel Hai', The Librarians, The blog of the National Library of Israel, 18 March 2019
- Walter Schwab and Julia Weiner eds., Jewish Artists: The Ben Uri Collection (London: Ben Uri Art Society in association with Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd., 1994), p. 79
- Ilana Salama Ortar, Melnikoff: 'The Awakening Judah': Homage to Awahahm Melnikoff, Pioneer of Israeli Sculpture (Haifa: Haifa University Library, 1982)
- 'Bombs on a Studio', Tatler and Bystander 1940, Vol. 158, 13 November 1940, p. 221
- 'A Bust of Toscanini', Jewish Chronicle, 12 May 1939, p. 33
- Abraham Melnikov, 'An Artist's Impression', Jewish Chronicle, 29 April 1938, p. 26
- 'Jewish Art: A New Culture Between East and West', Manchester Guardian, 9 April 1938, p. 15
- 'A Manchester Exhibition', Manchester Guardian, 2 April 1938, p. 16
- 'Melnikoff Exhibition of Sculpture', Jewish Chronicle, 5 June 1936, p. 22
- 'A Palestinian Sculptor', Manchester Guardian, 5 June 1936, p. 10
- Abraham Melnikov, 'Rembrandt and Divine Light', Jewish Chronicle, 13 September 1935, p. 21
- 'A Palestinian Sculptor', Manchester Guardian, 3 May 1935, p. 9
- 'Melnikoff Exhibition', Jewish Chronicle, 3 May 1935, p. 5
- 'Art Notes', Jewish Chronicle, 19 April 1935, p. 22
Related organisations
- Chicago School of Art (student)
- Hebrew Artists' Association (deputy president, 1920s)
- Vienna Art Academy (student)
Related web links
- Document containing Abraham Melnikov's biography in Hebrew
- Melnikov's Roaring Lion
- 'The Story of a Sculpture: The Roaring Lion of Tel Hai'
Selected exhibitions
- Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri (1983)
- Haifa University Gallery, Haifa, Israel (1982)
- Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri (1960)
- Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition 1851-1951, Ben Uri (1951)
- Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Jewish Painters and Sculptors, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1950)
- Contemporary Jewish Artists: Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Ben Uri (1949)
- Exhibition of painting and sculpture by contemporary Jewish artists, Ben Uri (1946)
- Beaux-Arts Gallery, London (1936)
- Bloomsbury Gallery (1935)
Ben Uri collection
Abraham Melnikov in the Ben Uri collection
Ben Uri archive
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Abraham Melnikov]
Ben Uri library
Publications related to [Abraham Melnikov] in the Ben Uri Library