Femme assise

Details

Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964)
Femme assise
signed, inscribed, dated and numbered 'Archipenko Paris 1912 5/12 F' (on the back)
bronze with brown patina
Height: 16 in. (40.6 cm.)
Conceived in 1912; this bronze version cast by the estate of the artist, 1966

Provenance

Estate of the artist.
David B. Findlay Galleries, New York (1972).
Anon. sale, Christie's, New York, 11 May 1989, lot 310.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

"Alexander Archipenko," Sturm Bilderbucher II, 1917, p. 6 (another cast illustrated, pl. 6).
R. Schacht, Alexander Archipenko, Sturm-Bilderbucher II, Berlin, 1924, p. 23 (another cast illustrated, pl. 10).
A. Archipenko, Archipenko, Fifty Creative Years 1908-1958, New York, 1960, pl. 227 (another cast illustrated).
D.H. Karshan, ed., Archipenko, International Visionary, Washington D.C., 1969, pp. 36 and 114, no. 13 (another cast illustrated, p. 37, pl. 29).
D.H. Karshan, "Les révolutions d'Alexandre Archipenko," Plaisir de France, no. 421, July 1974, pp. 12-17 (another cast illustrated, pl. 13).
B. Dorival, "Les Omissions d'Archipenko et de Lipchitz," Bulletin de la Societe de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, Paris, 1974, no. 43 (another cast illustrated).
K.J. Michaelsen, Archipenko, A Study of the Early Works, 1908-1921, New York, 1977, pp. 62-64 (another cast illustrated, pl. 32).
D.H. Karshan, Archipenko, Sculpture, Drawings and Prints, 1908-1963, Danville, Kentucky, 1985, p. 33, no. 12 (another cast illustrated, pp. 42-43).
"Artist Spotlight-Alexander Archipenko," The Artist's Foundry for Practicing Sculptors, no. 1, vol. 4, 1981, p. 1 (another cast illustrated, pl. 1).

Lot Essay

The Archipenko Foundation will include this bronze in their forthcoming catalogue raisonné of sculptures by Alexander Archipenko.

Archipenko sought to apply the lessons of Cubist painting to sculpture, and this process is evident in the tubular, angular forms of Femme assise. He also utilized the concept of presenting multiple views of the subject simultaneously. When seen from a stationary point, Femme assise is a combination of frontal and profile views of the female figure. The distorted forms owe much to the influence of Mannerism, although in Femme assise Archipenko strives for expressive strength rather than gracefulness or elegance.

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