Léon Indenbaum (1890-1981)
Léon Indenbaum was born on December 10, 1890 in Tcherikov, Belorussia. He started learning wood working in a crafts school when he was about thirteen. As his work stood out, he received a grant to study in Odessa’s Fine Arts School. He then briefly worked in the city of Vilna, in the Ecole des Arts Appliqués Antonolski, and eventually moved to Paris in March 1911.
From this date to 1919, he worked with Emile-Antoine Bourdelle. He settled in a studio in La Ruche, met Amedeo Modigliani who became his friend and made his portrait, and was acquainted with Soutine, Kremègne, Chagall, and several other artists that belonged to the Ecole de Paris. He started displaying his work in the Salon des Indépendants in 1912. In 1913, Jacques Doucet became his patron as he also worked for Georges and Marcel Bernard, two bankers, until the 1929 crash. During the war, Indenbaum had to hide and several of his works were destroyed.
In 1963, he took part in the foundation of the Groupe de Neuf which displayed its work in 1963 at the Vendôme Gallery. He participated in exhibitions along with the group: A Testimony on Man by Twenty-Two Sculptors in the Saint-Denis Art and History Museum in 1966, and First Festival of Contemporary Sculpture in the Saint-Ouen Castle in 1967. In 1968, the Institut granted him the Wildenstein Prize.
