The Art Club of Chicago

The Arts Club of Chicago, founded in 1916 and dedicated to art, was one of the first places to exhibit modern art from Europe in the United States. From 26^th March to 9^th April 1930, Zadkine exhibited thirty-five gouaches. A 4-page catalogue, illustrated with a black-and-white reproduction, presented the list of works.

In 1931, it was Bernard Davis who helped to organise an important exhibition entitled "Sculpture by Ossip Zadkine" at The Arts Club of Chicago (from 9^th to 24^th January) which presented 27 sculptures and 10 gouaches by Zadkine. On this occasion Bernard Davis loaned seven sculptures from his collection. The catalogue included a preface by Samuel Putnam, a biography, the list of works exhibited, extracts from press articles and monographs about the sculptor and 6 illustrations. In 1927 Zadkine made the acquaintance of Bernard Davis, an American industrialist of Russian origin, through the intermediary of the painter Georges Annenkoff. B. Davis was a major collector and lover of Zadkine's work, and acquired numerous sculptures and gouaches which he later donated to American museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also donated two magnificent large wooden sculptures, Niobe and the Discus Thrower, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in 1945.

The Arts Club of Chicago organised two other exhibitions devoted to Zadkine's work: in 1936 (from 31^st January to 18^th February) a collection of 28 gouaches, 8 drawings and 6 engravings, a catalogue including the list of works, the reproduction in black-and-white of a gouache of a woman reading; then, in 1942 (from 6^th to 25^th March) 12 sculptures and 30 gouaches.