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During the late 1930s, Eugenie Gershoy began working for the Works Progress Administration in New York. A friend of hers, the artist Max Spivak, was designing a series of murals for a children’s library in Astoria, Long Island. Gershoy decided to create colorful figurines to go along with Spivak’s paintings. These sculptures depicted circus characters posed in a variety of impossible feats, including the figures in Ill-Fated Toreador, who dangles precariously from a bull’s horn, and The Very Strong Man, who lifts an elephant above his head while balancing on one toe. The library was so pleased with the work of Gershoy and Spivak, they rebuilt the space into an oval to emphasize the circus setting.

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.

Keywords

Animal - elephant

Fantasy

Figure male

Performing arts - circus - strong man

sculpture

adhesive - dextrine

About Eugenie Gershoy

Born: Krivoi Rog, Russia 1901 Died: United States 1986

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Eugenie Gershoy

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