Rueben Nakian: Bio

(1897-1986)  Reuben Nakian was born in College Point, NY and enjoyed a long and distinguished career over seventy years as a sculptor.  

Nakian received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nebraska (1969) and Bridgeport (1972), medals from the Philadelphia College of Art (1967) and the American Academy/National Institute of Arts and Letters (1973), and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1983).  He was the recipient of awards from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts (1979), Brandeis University (1977), and the Rhode Island School of Design (1979).

Reuben Nakian was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1931 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1958.  He represented the United States as the major sculptor in the VI Bienal in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1961) and the 1968 Biennale in Venice, Italy and was a guest of honor at the Famous Artist’s Evening at the White House (1966).  The Smithsonian Institution produced a documentary on his life and work titled Reuben Nakian: Apprentice to the Gods, (1985).  

Nakian’s work is represented in the permanent collections of many of America’s most prestigious museums and institutions.  He has had major one-man shows at the Los Angeles County Museum (1962), the Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY (1966), the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC (1981), the Milwaukee Art Museum (1985), the Gulbenkian Centro de Arte Moderna, Lisbon, Portugal (1988), and a Centennial Retrospective at the Reading Public Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (1999).  Garden of the Gods I was one of five sculptures to inaugurate the Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden, while other monumental works are in civic and private settings across the US.

Called “one of the most distinguished American sculptors of the 20th Century,”* Nakian’s long career touched more of American art history than most artists.

(* Bio adapted from New York Time obituary December 5, 1986 and exhibition materials from his spring 2001 exhibition at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.)