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Lot Essay
Frances Archipenko Gray has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
According to Donald H. Karshan, the Torso in Space series was a "landmark innovation in the history of sculpture" (op. cit., 1989, p. 66). It was one of Archipenko's most serene and elegant achievements of the mid-1930s, created while the artist was living in Los Angeles. Archipenko places the streamlined abstract female form on a pair of cradled bases, lifting the sculpture off the surface below. "The centuries old theme of the reclining woman was expressed by sculptors as integral to the base on which the figure reposed. With Torso in Space, Archipenko 'freed' this subject from its horizontal moorings, so to speak, in a curvilinear shape of the female form that appears to float or be independent of its base" (ibid.).
According to Donald H. Karshan, the Torso in Space series was a "landmark innovation in the history of sculpture" (op. cit., 1989, p. 66). It was one of Archipenko's most serene and elegant achievements of the mid-1930s, created while the artist was living in Los Angeles. Archipenko places the streamlined abstract female form on a pair of cradled bases, lifting the sculpture off the surface below. "The centuries old theme of the reclining woman was expressed by sculptors as integral to the base on which the figure reposed. With Torso in Space, Archipenko 'freed' this subject from its horizontal moorings, so to speak, in a curvilinear shape of the female form that appears to float or be independent of its base" (ibid.).