Moissey Koganartist • sculptorOrhei (Moldavië) 1879-1943 Auschwitz (Polen)

The Russian-Jewish sculptor and graphic artist Moissey Kogan lived in the Netherlands in 1924, 1928 and 1933-1936 and occupies an important place in the Dutch sculpture of the Interbellum. Kogan lived in Paris and is said to have visited the Netherlands for the first time with the painter Otto van Rees, whom he had known from Paris since 1912. He became a teacher of young Amsterdam sculptors and was stimulated by the painter/critic Kasper Niehaus, sculptors such as Mari Andriessen, Hildo Krop and John Rädecker, and by the art collector Hendrik Wiegersma. Kogan's favorite theme was the female nude, stylistically influenced by the work of Renoir, Maillol and Rodin. For a long time Kogan was considered one of the most important representatives of French neoclassical sculpture, but because of his early work he is mainly seen in recent studies as a German artist.