PREMIER PRE HOLIDAY AUCTION
Lot 27:
Description
Signed Alexander Archipenko, ‘Geometric Statuette’. Bronze Sculpture
Signed Alexander Archipenko (Ukranian/American, 1887-1964). ‘Geometric Statuette’. Bronze sculpture of a female figure, raised on black granite plinith base. Signed Archipenko, 1914 to the verso of the bronze.
Archipenko was a pioneering modernist sculptor of abstract human forms who experimented with the effects of negative and positive space. He began his career working in the cubist style and later turned to simplified, abstract shapes with hollowed out parts of the bodies. In paris he worked with Amedeo Modigliani and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.
Around 1910, he was introduced to cubism by Fernand Leger, whose studio was near his own. Archipenko, along with the french-hungarian sculptor Joseph Csaky, exhibited at the first public manifestations of cubism in paris; the salon des indépendants and salon d’automne, 1910 and 1911. He was among the first, after Picasso, to employ the cubist style in three dimensions. In 1912, having achieved celebrity status, he opened the first of many art schools – including paris and berlin.
Archipenko moved to the u.s. in 1923, as he hoped to capitalize on his fame of the past decade and the myth which had come to surround him. He quickly opened an art school in new york city and another at the artist colony of woodstock, new york in the mid-hudson valley.
Overall – 28 3/4" high x 6 1/2" wide x 7 1/2" deep. Bronze – 26 1/4" high x 4 3/4" wide x 6" deep.
Condition: Very good. Very minor wear to the granite base. Very nice patina.
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