Background

Sidney Geist was born on April 11, 1914, in Paterson, New Jersey, United States.

Education

Sidney studied at Stephen’s College, Art Students League, and Academic Grande Chaumière in Paris. He was taught by masters William Zorach and Ossip Zadkin.

Career

Sidney started to works as an instructor in sculpture at Pratt Institute during 1961-65. He was a director of New York Studio School during 1964-66, an instructor in sculpture during 1964-87.

He also served as an instructor of sculpture at Vassar College during 1968-81. He was an instructor in sculpture at Vermont Studio School in 1987; at International School of Art, Todi in 1989. Sidney was an artist-in-residence at Carving Studio, Vermont in 1991. Next year he served at International School of Art, Montecastello di Vibio as an instructor.

In the late 1980s, Geist moved his attention away from Brancusi, and concentrated instead upon the works of other artists, including that of the French post-impressionist Paul Cezanne. In 1988, Geist published Interpreting Cezanne, in which he looks at, among other things, hidden images in Cezanne’s paintings. In addition to his books, Geist has also written art criticism for many magazines and periodicals, including Artforum, Saturday Review, Art International, Artscribe, and New Criterion.

Geist’s debut work, Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture, earned him some critical success. The book gives a general account of Brancusi’s sculptures, his philosophies, and style, as well as a biographical sketch of his life. A contributor for Choice called Geist’s effort the “best book written on Brancusi.” “Geist’s critical exegesis of Brancusi’s work is certainly thoughtful and sincere, but it is neither profound nor imaginative,” wrote a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement.

Geist’s 1975 effort, Brancusi: The Sculpture and the Drawings, came about as a result of the Brancusi retrospective that ran at the Guggenheim Museum. Library Journal reviewer Robin Kaplan felt it was “a strange mixture of popular text and scholarly apparati.” A contributor to Choice lauded the book’s “clear and beautiful prose” and “handsome design.”

Brancusi: The Kiss was published three years later and was also met with a fair amount of critical applause. In the work, Geist examines and extracts the meanings of the eight different versions of The Kiss, one of Brancusi’s most famous sculptures. A contributor for Choice thought Geist had written “with the understanding of the practitioner.” Although noting the importance of Geist’s “terse, gentle tone,” a contributor for the New Yorker surmised that the book “could use a little more dramatic momentum.”

Achievements

• Sidney Geist was known as the author, who has written on the artistic career of Constantin Brancus. He has composed several works about the Romanian sculptor, beginning with 1967’s Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture. A renowned sculptor in his own right, Geist has displayed his work at galleries all over the world. His solo exhibitions have appeared in New York and San Francisco, as well as Tokyo and Paris.
  
  For his accomplishments, Geist was honored in 1992 with an exhibition that covered seven decades of his work.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Interpreting Cezanne

    (In this remarkable book, the sculptor and writer Sidney G...)

    1988
  • Brancusi: The Sculpture and Drawings 1975
  • Brancusi/The kiss 1978
  • Brancusi: a study of the sculpture 1967
  • CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI, 1876-1957 1969

• sculpture

  • “Untitled Female.”

    (Carved and cast plaster, 1940.)

    1940

  • Untitled

    (Finished wood mounted to base.)

    1950

  • Fisherman with 6 Fish

    (Wood and lacquer and net.)

    1951

  • Palette

    (Painted Pine Wood.)

    1951

  • Red Figure

    (Wood and lacquer.)

    1956

  • Man and Woman

    (Wood and lacquer.)

    1956

  • Untitled

    (Oil on plaster.)

    1962

  • Fisherman

    (Wood and net.)

    1948

  • Planet

    (Marble)

    1977

Membership

Geist is a member of College Art Association of America.

Interests

• Artists

  Picasso, David Smith and Brancusi

Connections

teacher:

Ossip Zadkine

teacher:

William Zorach

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 184
  2000