49
Alexander Archipenko
(Ukrainian, 1887-1964)
Statuette Géometrique (Geometric Statue), conceived 1914
Estimate: $30,000-$50,000
Withdrawn
Live Auction
Center Stage: The Laura Pels Collection | Act I: Fine Art
Size
Height: 27 inches.
Description
Alexander Archipenko
(Ukrainian, 1887-1964)
Statuette Géometrique (Geometric Statue), conceived 1914
bronze with golden brown patina with verdigris highlights
signed ARCHIPENKO, dated, and inscribed PARIS (on the right side of the base)
Height: 27 inches.
Condition
Overall: 28 1/2 x 6 x 4 3/4 inches.
Signature
signed ARCHIPENKO, dated, and inscribed PARIS (on the right side of the base)
Provenance
Literature:Alexander Archipenko, Fifty Creative Years, New York, 1960, no. 135 (the polychrome terracotta version illustrated)Frederick S. Wright, Alexander Archipenko, UCLA Art Galleries, Los Angeles, 1967, no. 24, p. 45 (another cast illustrated)Katherine Michaelsen, Archipenko, A Study of the Early Works, 1908-1920, New York, 1977, no. S51, p. 65 (the plaster version illustrated)Anette Barth, Alexander Archipenkos plastisches Oeuvre, Vol. II, New York and Frankfurt am Main, 1997, no. 55.Lot note:Archipenko created Statuette Géométrique two years after he began exhibiting his work at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, and just one year after he revealed his monumental La Vie Familiale sculpture at the Armory Show in New York. The female figure is presented here with elegant simplicity, revealing the artist’s interest in conveying Cubist notions of form, mass, and space. Devoid of facial features and limbs, the figure is a dynamic mix of both convex and concave surfaces, and is at once both static, as well as in movement and the figure is simultaneously seen from different views. The present bronze is also a study in contrasting textures, with the work having both a mottled and smooth surface, along with both undulating lines – the upper torso and hip – and straight lines – the suggested leg in the form of a mass which joins the base. The present work occupies an important part of the artist’s oeuvre and one which was an ongoing motif: his interest in capturing the female form in three dimensions - while subverting traditional neoclassical concepts of space, with other Archipenko female figures rendered in bronze are depicted reclining, seated, or walking.