Reuben Kadish (1913 – 1992) is an American artist whose provocative sculptures, drawings, and prints are infused with a deep sense of world culture and personal passion. As a young man, his education and travel brought him into contact with some of the twentieth century’s most influential artists, including Philip Guston, Jackson Pollock, and David Alfaro Siqueiros; and he assisted in the printing of editions for several European surrealists at Stanley William Hayter’s infamous Atelier 17 in Greenwich Village. This rich history was a blessing and a curse as Kadish tends to be recognized as a footnote in the careers of others rather than for his own creative achievements.
In the mid-1980s, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Kadish created several large heads that serve as witnesses to, or survivors of, great personal or societal tragedy. Their eyes are often swollen and closed, as if the sights they’ve seen are too horrific to bear. These works share qualities with Easter Island figures, the early sculpture of Jean Dubuffet, and Philip Guston’s late self-portraits. Works on paper made in Burma and India between 1943 and 1944 reveal homeless and starving victims of war, often shown in fetal positions. Drawings and prints from the 1960s and 1980s offer hybrid beings that combine spines, skulls, birds, and snakes. They animate spare landscapes with playful and anxious energy. Kadish’s confrontational and commemorative art surely speaks to events of the past, but might be even more relevant as indicators of our unpredictable and often painful present.
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