FIORE DE HENRIQUEZ (1921-2004) EXPRESSIONIST BRONZE

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Winter Gallery Auction

By Soulis Auctions

Dec 10, 2022

Set Reminder 2022-12-10 12:00:00 2022-12-10 12:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Winter Gallery Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/dirk-soulis/winter-gallery-auction-11410
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• Lot Description
  Fiore De Henriquez (Italian/british 1921 - 2004)
  
  Reclined Figure on Plinth
  
  Third quarter of the 20th century.
  
  The composition of an abstracted figure on its back cradling abstracted flowers within its arms and bent legs is signed in the casting back side along the lower edge. Willem de Kooning produced similar bronze castings in this same period.
  
  The circumstances of her childhood, the difficulties of being born an intersexed person and the larger than life persona of sculptor Fiore de Henriquez have inspired more than a few books, articles and documentaries about her life and art. The titles include Art & Androgyny: The Life of Sculptor Fiore De Henriquez, Fiore In Love With Clay, Cigars Get Feminine Puff and 'All Woman and Half a Man' to name a few.
  
  She eventually conquered and embraced the challenges of having been born with both male and female sexual characteristics, and ultimately considered it an opportunity, seeing herself as a rare and unusual individual.
  
  As a young woman in facist Italy, she helped evacuate Jewish refugees to safety and claims she escaped an interrogation through the washroom window after fixing her interrogators pancakes. She left Italy in 1949 and in 1953 became a British citizen. Fiore returned to work and exhibit in Rome and later lived in Tuscany until her passing. Throughout her life, and around the world, she received numerous commissions for public installations while she sculpted the likenesses of thousands of people, including celebrities and dignitaries as well as friends and relatives - some who describe her as having a cigar in one hand and whisky in the other during their sitting.
  
  It can be said that her abstract expressionist sculptures speak to the challenges she faced. Some seem to portray concealment while others can be seen as expressions of freedom. Some as themes of struggling with acceptance and others the release of not doing so. There are interpretations of solitude and loneliness (like the sculpture being offered here) or paired heads and conjoined figures, expressions of duality. In her essay on the artist's life, author Jan Short provides poignant insight including the artist's own words, ''The moment I embrace a piece of clay to make a sculpture, I think of how it's going to grow,'' Fiore said. ''Clay is very soft and pliable, so feminine: la creta. It then becomes plaster, more virile and rigid: gesso, that I can carve with a knife. Later it becomes feminine again as la cera, wax, pliable again, with fire this time. Then il bronzo, again masculine, hard. From feminine to masculine, over and again.'' The more one learns about the life and times of Fiore De Henriquez, the more fascinating her works become.
  
  Measures 10.75 x 12 x 6.75 inches.
  
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  Condition

  Very good condition throughout, no damage, repair or wear.
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