Harry Abend
1937–2021 · Venezuelan sculptor, goldsmith and architect of Polish origin
Harry Abend (Jarosław, Poland, 1937 - Caracas, 2021) was a Venezuelan sculptor of Polish origin and one of the leading figures of sculpture in Venezuela over more than six decades. He received the National Sculpture Prize in 1963 for the series Formas and the Order of Francisco de Miranda in 1990. Although he also trained as an architect and goldsmith, sculpture brought him his greatest recognition.
He arrived in Venezuela in 1948, at the age of eleven, and studied architecture at the Central University of Venezuela while beginning his sculptural work. His career moved from polished bronze and wood carving to geometric constructivism, with reliefs integrated into Caracas buildings such as the Unión Israelita synagogue and the Teresa Carreño Theatre. After a period in London, his work took on an organic, totemic character in the mid-1980s, centred on wood and on felled tree trunks.
His legacy is linked to the integration of art into Venezuelan architecture and to a practice that also embraced jewellery and printmaking. He died in Caracas in 2021.