Dimitri Hadzi - at Rosenthal Gallery

Centaur and Lapith, 1954, 16 "

The post-war era was one of the great turning points in American art history. The art world shunned the politicized figurative idealism of the Nazi, Soviet , and WPA regimes. Art could now be defiant, indulgent, angry, whimsical, or eventually ironic or puzzling. But it could no longer be heroic - unless utterly self centered - and it appears that is exactly where Dimitri Hadzi (1921-2006) still wanted to go. In the 1950’s, he drew from the severity and timeless power of archaic Greek culture while living in Rome, just as his noted American predecessor Paul Manship, had done forty years earlier. The small bronzes made in that period are the highlight of this show Working traditional classical themes, they erupt with excitement as they organize space - especially the earliest,  “Centaur and Lapith” (1952).

 Moving back and forth to the United States, however, he got major commissions in a more abstract, expressive style, like that of Seymour Lipton, and eventually became a professor of sculpture at Harvard. A human figure may be suggested, but only in a disjointed way - as if inhabiting a dream instead of walking on the earth. Many of these pieces are most notable for ideas.  Some feel like scaled down versions of large commissions….. more like mementos than pieces with a powerful life of their own. 

Some pieces feel like they belong in a meditative Japanese garden (Pillars of Hercules, Aeolus, River Legend).  Others seems to express the angst and anxiety of modern life (Elmo, Scudi ). And then there's the  most recent piece, "Apollonian Libation" (2001) which seems to defy interpretation despite its mythological title.  It does seem to resemble  a nautical signal mast. Presumably he was keeping up with the semiotic trends in the university art world.

This was not the kind of thorough retrospective an art museum might do — just a collection of stuff that the gallery could presumably obtain at good prices.  It does, however, suggest the course of a career that seems to be following trends rather than trying to establish one.

 

Pillars of Hercules, 1971-2

Aeolus II, 1972, 23"

Scudi,  1958, 28 "

Elmo (helmet), 1959, 14"

Elmo II, 1959, 30"

Apollonian Libation, 2001, 47"

Mycenae, 1978,   18.5"

Cumean Oracle, 1998, 48’

River Legend III, 1976, 40 "

Syphnean Landscape, 1989,  68"