The terracotta and plaster maquettes that comprise the extraordinary body of work in the UAMA collection were a gift from the Jacques and Yulla Lipchitz Foundation in 1979. The original clay sketches disintegrated without constant dampening; the works that were given to the UAMA survive because they were fired in a kiln, or translated by craftsmen into plaster. After the disastrous fire in his Manhattan studio in 1952, Lipchitz wanted to catalogue and preserve the remaining maquettes, and some of these were cast into bronze. (The large bronze sculpture in the front courtyard of the museum, Lesson of a Disaster, was also a gift of the Lipchitz Foundation and represents Jacques’ emotions after the studio fire.)
