As early as 1927 Ibram Lassaw (age 14) began keeping a notebook in which he recorded information on each of his sculptures. A sculpture was given a number and it's material and measurements were noted. As sculptures took part in exhibitions or were sold that information was added to the page.

Sometime in the 1930's he began taking photographs of his work and by the 1940's he had a darkroom where he could process his own black and white film.

Unfortunately Lassaw's record keeping was inconsistent. There were times when sculptures were being created and leaving the studio before they were photographed.

In the 1990's I sorted through hundreds of 8x10 prints, slides and stereo slides and identified each work by its number and title. When all was done there were some photos without ID's and some entries in the Sculpture Book without corresponding photographs. From this collected information I created a database in Filemaker. The Sculpture Book for Guests is a slimmed down version of my working database.

Lassaw had training in classical sculpture and made several death masks which he photographed but did not include in the Sculpture Book . In 1940 he made a full head cast death mask of Valdimir Jabotinsky the Russian Jewish political leader, writer and poet, and in 1954 of the poet Dylan Thomas.

Lost Children, Please call home!

There are close to 400 sculptures by Ibram Lassaw, which cover a time-span of approximately 75 years. A number of them have been lost or destroyed by time and fire. Works that were sold since the 1950's may have changed hands several times. In the process of these transitions knowledge of the titles, materials and even the creator may have been lost. I offer this database as a tool to help identify Ibram Lassaw's lost children. If you think you have a Lassaw sculpture please contact me with photographs, measurements and any details of provenance.