AHRON BEN-SCHMUEL

Ahron Ben-Schmuel was an American sculptor who carved directly in stone, also known for his paintings. Richard Davis studied with him at Ben-Schmuel’s studio at Greenwich House in New York and in the studio in the Catskill mountains of Pennsylvania during the period 1931 – 1934.

Ahron (Aaron) Ben-Schmuel (1903 – 1984) was born Archie Levitt in New York city of Jewish and Egyptian extraction. His father was a taxidermist, and young Ahron / Archie learned to carve the wooden forms for mounting animal specimens. He apprenticed as a monument carver in a stone yard for 3 years and then studied sculpture under William Zorach. He developed his style, carving figures directly in granite and other stone. Jackson Pollack studied with him at Greenwich House and briefly in the Catskills before abandoning sculpture for his unique splatter paint style of abstract art.

Following his marriage to the sculptress Jo Jenks (later Josepha) the couple moved to Israel where he died in Jerusalem in 1984. Ben-Shmuel's work is included in the permanent museum collection at Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Michener Art Museum, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and others.

Davis sculpted a portrait of his friend and mentor Ben-Schmuel in 1936 in clay and cast in bronze. The rugged masculinity of the subject is captured intensely and further accentuated by the rough stone base on which it is mounted. The head was exhibited at the MOMA in New York in 1936 and then at other galleries.