LEON SITARCHUK American, 1922–1993
Sitarchuk’s elegant figure reclines. An
Channel Beams 1972 Painted steel
strength of modernity.
odalisque of steel, she represents the power of the machine age and the
Much of Sitarchuk’s work was intended for installation outdoors. His Pillar (c. 1978), another figurative abstraction,
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. B. Herbert Lee, 2016
is currently installed outside Woodmere’s front door. Channel Beams, with its sensual anodized blue surface, was intended for the indoors. The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Sitarchuk was born in Philadelphia. After attending Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, he served in the United States Army in World War II. On returning to Philadelphia, he dedicated himself to making sculpture and teaching. A beloved instructor for many decades, Sitarchuk taught at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cheltenham Art Center, and Woodmere. His impact on the field of sculpture lives on through the many artists who think of him as a primary inspiration and mentor.
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