Max Kalish

(1891-1945), nationally known Cleveland-based sculptor (born in Belarus) ranked in

the top tier of American sculptors of the early 20^th century. He is best known for his sculptures of laborers. His Orthodox Jewish family emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1893, when he was two. He studied under Herman Matzen at the Cleveland School of Art, then in New York City at the National Academy of Design, with Alexander Stirling Calder and Isidore Konti, and in Paris at the Académie Colorossi & the École des Beaux-Arts His best known work is his 1932 statue of Abraham Lincoln in Cleveland, Ohio.  Washington, D.C. publisher Willard M. Kiplinger commissioned Kalish to create fifty portrait statuettes of prominent figures in World War II era politics, arts and sciences. Kiplinger donated the statuettes to the Smithsonian Institution in 1944. (Nominated by CMA senior curator Bill Robinson)