Friday, December 11, 2009

Arthur Zaidenberg - Studies in Figure Drawing

Arthur Zaidenberg was a teacher and author in New York City. He was born in New York City in 1908. He studied at the Art Student League in New York City, and at the National Academy of Design, Beaux Arts in Paris, Kunstakademie in Munich and the American Academy in Rome.

Arthur Zaidenberg's drawings appear to build on the drawings and paintings of Paul Cezanne because he builds his figures by observing the planes that make up the figure. His teaching also emphasizes the construction of object by combining simple shapes to build the whole.

From the New York Times obituary: "In 1938, Mr. Zaidenberg published his revolutionary techniques, which were based on his theory that a person who could write the alphabet could combine simple shapes and draw. He was also the first teacher at New York University to use nude models in his life drawing classes."

The images here are from Studies in figure drawing.





A copy is for sale on Ebay. Click here to see the book for sale on Ebay.

He was an incredibly prolific author. Amazon's listing of his books. One title still in print is Draw Anything. Scans of some of the pages from Anyone Can Draw are at Fulltable.com. Amazon's search for books by Arthur Zaidenberg









































A similar book is Drawing the Human Figure, you can find it and others on Ebay. Click here to see the books for sale on Ebay.



A really rare book by Arthur Zaidenberg combines photographs by Alexander Paal, with analytical sketches by Arthur Zaidenberg, Body in art, by Alexander Paal; with twenty-four studies sketched and analyzed by Arthur Zaidenberg, another copy is also at Amazon.com

























Examples from Anyone Can Draw at Fulltable.

Body in Art by Alexander Paal and Arthur Zaidenberg at Abebooks.com.

2 comments:

  1. What a truly wonderful blog - for anyone interested in Life Drawing it feels like a spiritual home - Brilliant.
    I will feature a link to this site on my blog, I wonder if you would include me in your links
    thank you
    Tom Wood
    www.tomwood.typepad.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, I added you to the list of blogs to the right.

    ReplyDelete