FINE ARTS

Des ra

Woman,

Hannah Steibel has lived a "long and stormy" life;
only her love of sculpture has remained constant.

Assistant Editor

fie of the first
to recognize
Hanna Stie-
bel's talent
was Richard
Rodgers.
She was a
student at Cranbrook, com-
pleting her art degree and
planning to return shortly to
her home in Israel. He was a
prominent composer, whose
works included The Sound of
Music, The King and I, Pal
Joey and Carousel, and a
devoted art collector.
Mrs. Stiebel had just fin-
ished setting up a show of
her sculptures at Cranbrook
when Mr. Rodgers and his
wife stopped by. They asked
to meet the artist. The
school's public relations di-
rector could not call Mrs.
Stiebel quickly enough.
"Some people here want to
see you," she told the artist.
"Not now," Mrs. Stiebel
said. Having worked for
three straight days and
nights on the show, she was
-tired, dirty, hungry and in
no mood to meet casual
visitors.
"But you have to," the PR
director whispered.
Reluctantly, Mrs. Stiebel
did as she was told. She was
introduced to a "glamourous
couple" who insisted on buy-
ing one of her sculptures.
She never asked their
names, and even when the
PR director identified the
buyer as Richard Rodgers,
Mrs. Stiebel had no idea who
he was.
Today, museums
throughout the world and
leading art connoisseurs,
like the late Henry Ford II,
own sculptures by Mrs.
Stiebel, who lives in Bloom-
field Hills. Sculpture was
always her passion, but as a
young girl she never imag-
ined it would one day be her
career.
Hanna Stiebel was born in
Warsaw and came as a child
to Tel Aviv. Her parents
always loved art, literature
and music. Back in Warsaw
her mother had taught
Polish literature; her father
sang operas around the
house.
Hanna's first love was
always sculpture. With art

0

schools teaching only jewel-
ry-making, Hanna taught
herself by carving pieces of
wood and rocks. She started
sculpting, she says, "and it
just caught fire."
But Israel was a country in
the middle of a War of In-
dependence. "Sculpture "was
not known or needed," Mrs.
Stiebel says. So at 14, Hanna
joined the Haganah, Israel's
underground army.
"After the swearing in
(with the army), you are
never a child anymore," she
says.
Hanna served regular two-
week stints with the army.
She often missed school, but
was ordered to keep her

mouth shut about where she
was and what she was doing.
"No one talked about what
he was doing," she says.
"And that included to one's
parents. I was sent out for
weeks and my parents
couldn't look for me."
Stationed at a kibbutz in
northern Israel, Hanna had
the job of bringing new im-
migrants into Israel from
Lebanon and Syria. The
men, women and children
she guided, most of whom
were sick and weak, had
been gathered by members
of the Palmach, the assault
force of the Haganah.
The work was dangerous,
with British soldiers — de-

termined that no
unauthorized Jews should
sneak into Israel — and wild
jackals always prowling
nearby. "At first I was quite
fearful," Mrs. Stiebel says.
"But after awhile it became
a routine."
While in the Haganah she
was reunited with an old
friend, Ariel Stiebel, a
Palmach officer responsible
for all army ammunition in
northern Israel. Whenever
Hanna returned from Leb-
anon with a batch of immi-
grants, Ariel was waiting up
for her. He gave her a snack
and the two would talk into
the late hours of the night.
Hanna and Ariel first met

Photos by Glenn Triest

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Hanna Stiebel in her studio: "I like to tease Mother Nature by doing things that are
theoretically impossible."

as children, when both
would sneak into perfor-
mances of the Palestine Or-
chestra.
Later, they found them-
selves in the same youth
movement. Ariel was un-
forgettable, Mrs. Stiebel
says today. His father was a
prominent physician in Tel
Aviv, and Ariel was one of a
handful of teen-agers who
had his own car.
After the war, Hanna
enrolled at the Hebrew Uni-
versity of Jerusalem, where
she again met up with Ariel
Stiebel. She was studying
physics, math and chemistry
and was looking for a tutor.
A friend suggested Ariel, an
engineer and pianist who
had a reputation for enabl-
ing others to develop their
own skills.
Though at the time Hanna
considered marriage
"completely unrealistic —I
never even thought I'd get to
it — I wanted to do so much,
I wanted so much freedom,"
she was charmed by her
tutor. "I thought: If you have
to get married, that's the
kind of person I would like to
have as my husband."
Ariel and Hanna eventual-
ly wed and had two children,
a son and a daughter. Mrs.
Stiebel found work as a
dancer with an Israeli ballet
company. There, she caught
the eye of a certain visitor
from the United States nam-
ed Martha Graham. The
famed dancer invited Hanna
to come study in New York.
Though it meant leaving
her husband and children
behind, Hanna Stiebel
agreed to come to the United
States in 1955. She intended
to make her stay in New
York temporary. -
It didn't take long for Ms.
Graham to see that Hanna's
great love was not really
dance. She told her student,
"You dance like a frustrated
sculptor." Soon after, she in-
vited Hanna to her office.
As Hanna stood by, Ms.
Graham "picked up the
phone and called someone.
She spoke very softly, put
down the phone and said to
me, 'You can have your first
sculpting class tonight.' "
Her class was to be at the
New School for Social
Research in New York City.
The teacher was from

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