Collection Information
Size: 37.3 Linear feet
Summary: The papers of Greek American sculptor and educator Dimitri Hadzi measure 37.3 linear feet and date from 1910s-2007, with the bulk of records dating 1936-2007. The collection documents Hadzi's career through biographical material such as education records, World War II files, and some interviews; correspondence with family, artists, art historians, architects, and professional organizations; diaries, notebooks, and other writings; exhibition, gallery and museum, teaching, and project files; personal business records; clippings, exhibition ephemera, invitations, and other printed material; photographs of Hadzi, events and exhibitions, installations, foundries, and studios; some artwork; and audio recordings and motion picture films.
Biographical/Historical Note
Dimitri Hadzi (1921-2006) was an Greek American sculptor who lived and worked in Rome from the 1950s to 1975, and then in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1975 to 2006. Born to Greek immigrants, Hadzi attended Brooklyn Technical High School before enlisting in the Army Air Force in 1942. After the World War II, Hadzi studied painting and sculpture at Cooper Union and graduated with honors in 1950. He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study at the Polytechnion, Athens, Greece, and subsequently moved to Rome where he remained until the mid-1970s. Hadzi worked mostly with stone and bronze, from which he created semi-abstract shapes and structures drawn from his Greek heritage. His work was selected for the Venice Biennale in 1956, and and his first solo-exhibition came two years later at the Galeria Schneider, Rome, Italy. Throughout his career, Hadzi held solo exhibitions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Philips Collection, Athens Gallery in Greece, Rikugie Gallery in Japan, and many others. His group exhibitions include Recent Sculptor USA (1959), Museum of Modern Art, New York; Annual Exhibition , The Whitney Museum (1961); Seven Sculptors at Harvard , Harvard University (1983); and American Academy of Arts & Letters Centennial Portfolio , Pace Prints, New York (1998). Hadzi's public commissions include those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1963), St. Paul's Church, Rome, Italy (1966-1976), Dallas Center, Texas (1980). His artwork is held in permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Scultpure Garden, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hakone Museum of Sculpture in Japan, and the Montreal Museum of Art, among others. Hadzi was professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University from 1975-1989, and was named Professor Emeritus in 1989.
Funding Note
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.