Vase de fleurs

Details

Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964)
Vase de fleurs
signed and dated 'Archipenko 19' (lower right)
paper mâché and oil on panel
11¾ x 8½ in. (30.5 x 22.2 cm.)
Executed in 1919

Provenance

Grosvenor Gallery, London.
Sidney E. Cohn, New York (acquired from the above, 20 July 1972); sale, Sotheby's, New York, 13 May 1992, lot 15.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owners.

Literature

H. Hildebrandt, Die Kunst des XIX und XX Jahrhunderts, Potsdam, 1924, no. 60.
A. Archipenko, Archipenko: Fifty Creative Years, 1908-1958, New York, 1960, no. 61 (illustrated).
K.J. Michaelsen, Archipenko: A Study of the Early Works, 1908-1920, New York, 1977, p. 205, no. S103 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Berlin, Der Sturm Gallery, Alexander Archipenko, 1921, no. 25 (titled Rote Vase mit der Blume).
Frankfurt-am-Main, Kunstsalon Ludwig Schames, Alexander Archipenko-Lyonel Feininger, 1922, no. 32.
Prague, Archipenko, 1923, no. 1.
New York, Société Anonyme at Kingore Gallery, The Archipenko Exhibition, 1924, no. 34 (titled Red Vase of Flowers on Table).

Special Notice

On occasion, Christie’s has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale. This interest may include guaranteeing a minimum price to the consignor which is secured solely by consigned property. This is such a lot.

Lot Essay

With the advent of World War I, Alexander Archipenko moved to Nice in the south of France. Lacking the studio and materials required for traditional sculpture techniques, Archipenko began to develop "sculpto-painting" which he described as "a panel uniting colors and forms...interdependencies of relief, concave or perforated forms, colors and textures...made of papier-mâché, glass, wood of metal". As Katherine Michaelsen has written:

The significance of the sculpto-painting in Archipenko's work has thus far not been fully recognized...the sculpto-paintings may well constitute Archipenko's most original body of work. It is precisely the unexpected passage from one medium to the next--from projecting volume to pictorial surface--that is the unique quality of the sculpto-painting. Although in subject matter and style they rely on cubist paintings, the compositions are conceived with a greater spontaneity and imagination; they are entirely free of aesthetic constraints. The most striking feature of the sculpto-painting is dazzling, dissonant color... By combining painting and sculpture, Archipenko created a new medium of representation. (K.J. Michaelsen, Alexander Archipenko, A Centennial Tribute, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1986-1987, pp. 39-40)

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