Julie Rotblatt Amrany facts for kids

Julie Rotblatt Amrany is an American sculptor and painter. She is known for creating art that shows the human form, bringing it back into modern art.

Early Life and Art Training

Growing Up and Art School

Julie Rotblatt Amrany was born in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Highland Park, Illinois. She studied art at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She also spent a year studying in France at the University of Bordeaux. Julie was inspired by the famous artist Michelangelo. She became very interested in drawing and sculpting the human body. This was at a time when many art schools were not focusing on this type of art.

Learning About the Human Body

After college, Julie trained at the Art Institute of Chicago. She learned figure drawing, painting, and sculpting from real-life models. In 1982, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. There, she continued to study the human form at the College of Marin.

As part of her studies, Julie even learned about human anatomy by studying bodies. This program was usually for medical students. She also studied with sculptor Manuel Neri at the University of California, Davis. Julie helped with several art projects in the Bay Area. One project was a large painting for the Oakland Art Museum.

Studying Art in Italy

Carving Marble in Italy

Working with Manuel Neri made Julie interested in carving marble. In 1985, she went to Perugia, Italy. She was part of a program from Boston University. There, she drew from life and tried working with stone.

Julie then moved to Pietrasanta, Italy. This town is famous for its marble quarries. Michelangelo used marble from these same quarries for many of his sculptures. Julie started working at Studio Sem. There, she created a sculpture called Transference in Time. This artwork showed her ideas about space, time, and how we think.

She then moved to Santoli's Studio. For several months, she worked on a large bas-relief. This is a type of sculpture where the figures stick out from a flat background. Her bas-relief was made from a one-ton block of rose-colored slate from Assisi. It was called "Holding the Source." This large artwork was sent to Northern California. Sadly, it was later destroyed in an earthquake.

Personal Life

While in Pietrasanta, Julie met Omri Amrany, an artist from Israel. They got married in 1987. For two years, they lived in a community called Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov Meuhadin in Northern Israel. Their son was born in Israel in 1989. That same year, the family moved to Chicago.

Art Career and Famous Works

Starting a Studio

In 1992, Julie Rotblatt Amrany and Omri Amrany opened their own art studio. It was called the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany. They wanted their studio to be like the ones they saw in Italy. It was a place for learning art and for creating their own works. The studio also took on special art projects for others.

One of their first big projects was a bronze statue of basketball player Michael Jordan. This statue is at the United Center in Chicago.

Art and Healing

While working on the Michael Jordan sculpture, Julie was diagnosed with breast cancer. Because of her illness, she created two special artworks. One was Healing Energy for the Kellogg Cancer Care Center in Evanston, Illinois. The other was Dancing Electrons for the Simmons Cancer Institute in Springfield, Illinois.

Exhibitions and Public Art

Julie Rotblatt Amrany showed her art in many places. She took part in the Beaux-Arts Invitational Exhibition in Paris. She also showed her work at the Shanghai Art Fair in 2000. In 2001, she was invited to have her own art show at the Château d'Amboise in Amboise, France. Her "Theatre of the Soul" exhibition included 30 sculptures and paintings.

In 2002, Julie finished her biggest project of that time. It was the Veterans Memorial Park in Munster, Indiana. This park is nine acres large. It has six different scenes with bronze sculptures, bas-reliefs, laser-engraved images, and art made from found objects.

Other important artworks from the 2000s and 2010s include:

• Quest for Exploration: James A. Lovell (2005): An artwork about astronaut James A. Lovell at Chicago's Adler Planetarium.
• Preservation of the Union (2006): A bas-relief for the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
• Chicago White Sox 2005 Championship Piece (2007): A bas-relief of bronze and granite outside U. S. Cellular Field in Chicago.
• Chick Hearn (2010): A bronze statue of sportscaster Chick Hearn at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
• Jackie Chan Tribute (2010): A bronze statue of actor Jackie Chan for the JC Group in Shanghai.
• Jerry West (2011): A sculpture for Staples Center in Los Angeles.
• Scottie Pippen (2011): A sculpture for Chicago's United Center.

Julie also helped start the Julia Foundation. This group works to create a sculpture garden in the Sheridan Reserve Center in Lake County, Illinois.

Julie Rotblatt Amrany continues to create art that shows the human form. She said about her public art, "I believe we are giving something hopeful and energizing back, as we explore the lives of heroic figures and hold up parts of their human and soulful experience that can inspire others."

In 2014, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science showed a bronze statue of Rosalind Franklin made by Julie Rotblatt Amrany. It is near the university's main entrance.

Notable Artworks

• The Spirit: Michael Jordan, sculpture
• Healing Energy (painting)
• Perestroika I and II, sculpture
• Quest for Exploration: James A. Lovell, installation
• Veterans Memorial Park in Munster, Indiana
• George Halas Memorial, epic bas-relief
• Chicago White Sox 2005 World Champions, epic bas-relief
• Preservation of the Union, epic bas-relief
• Statue of Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles, California, sculpture (2024)
• Statue of Mike Modano, sculpture
• Statue of Ryne Sandberg, sculpture
• Statue of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, Los Angeles, California, sculpture (2024)