Alexander (Aleksandr) Archipenko (American, born Ukrainian, 1887-1964), "Figurliche Komposition" (Figurative Composition), original lithograph, published in 1921 for Genius, unsigned as usual. An expressive depiction of two female nudes from the "Bauhaus-Drucke Neue Europaische Graphik" portfolio on cream wove paper by the avant garde artist Alexander Archipenko, best known for his departure from neo-classical sculpture in order to render Cubism in three dimensions - presenting new ways of seeing the human figure, from multiple points of view simultaneously, and inventing means of using sculptural voids in a captivating manner. Size: 12.875" L x 10" W (32.7 cm x 25.4 cm)
Alexander Archipenko was an early modernist who would become well-known for his exploration the spatial relationships between solid forms and space in his sculptures. This lithograph captures his vibrant study of the female nude, a subject that he also captured in three dimensions in his Cubist bronze entitled, "Woman Combing Her Hair" (1915) - a sculpture that presents the intersecting planes, plays with mass and voids/negative spaces, to depart from traditional academic renderings.
This piece was created just prior to Archipenko's emigration to New York from Paris. On October 16, 1923, Archipenko and his wife, the artist Angelica Forster (German, 1893-1957) who exhibited under the name Gela Forster, arrived in New York aboard the S.S. Mongolia. Archipenko was enamored with being part of the Modernist scene centered in New York, declaring, "America is the only country not jaded and rent by war. It is the land where the great art of the future will be produced. America fires my imagination more than any country and embodies more of that flexibility, that yeastiness, which means life and vitality and movement."
Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection
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#133142
Condition
Letterpress on verso, artist, title, and medium.