.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
'My gesture is addressed to the human body, 'that complete erogenous zone'. To its most vague and ephemeral sensations. I want to exalt the ephemeral in the folds of our body, in the traces of our passage. Through casts of the body I try to fix the fleeting moments of life, its paradoxes and absurdity, in transparent polyester [...] I am convinced that all of the manifestation of the ephemeral the human body is the most vulnerable, the only source of all joy, all suffering and all truth, because of its essential nudity, as inevitable as it is inadmissible on any conscious level' (A. Szapocnikow, quoted in E. Filipovic & J. Mytkowska, Alina Szapocnikow Sculpture Undone 1955-1972, exh. cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2012-2013, p. 28).
Celebrated for her radicalization of the sculptural medium, Alina Szapocznikow's Untitled explores notions surrounding the body and memory. Part of her 'Expansions' series, the present work was executed in black poured polyurethane in 1968, and operates as both a physical and emotional manifestation of her own personal experiences. Recalling the sensuality of Louise Bourgeois, Szapocznikow's short but remarkably influential career has left a legacy of works which are both idiosyncratic and universal, a most fragmented and authentic response to condition of creating art in the complex post-war period.
The artist retained the individual nature inherent in the creative process for each sculpture by allowing the mass of black polyurethane to be shaped largely by chance, a quality she welcomed. With strong connections with sexuality and procreation, Untitled is an intensely private work, made the same year as the artist's diagnosis with breast cancer. In its soft ripples and undulations, Szapocznikow presents the germ of life, red and pulsating, drawing parallels to a beating heart. An illness in childhood deprived the artist of the possibility of carrying her own child, and the present work seems to act as a direct totem to this memory, both conceptually and physically. Here, the artist depicts the fleeting moment when life is created, using synthetic materials to symbolise this miraculous transformation that takes place within the human body. With its resemblance to the female generative organ, Untitled is connected with those later works in the artist's series which she plunged polyester casts of woman's body parts in to the foam. These sculptures of legs, breasts and torsos appear to be emerging out of molten black lava, almost primordial in their makeup.
Made in the aftermath of her first solo exhibition curated by Pierre Restany at Huston Brown Gallery in Paris and after her showing at the Venice Biennale in 1962, Szapocznikow gained new confidence in her art, which in turn, encouraged her to begin exploring new materials and subject matter. It was during this period that she first began arranging casts of woman's body parts in surprising configurations. Bellies, legs, knees were amassed to create 'human-like' forms in a fashion which paralleled Hans Bellmer's dolls. Szapocznikow soon began exploring new materials and the ways in which they too could inform her investigations into body and memory. Looking for materials that could both capture the qualities of transformation and malleability, the artist was impressed by the polyurethane Expansions by César, exhibited at the Parisian May Salon in 1967. In these works, César utilised the polyurethane's quick-spreading properties, making a unique spectacle out of the process itself. Clearly influenced by César's series, Szapocznikow became enchanted with this new material. She found that the material spread quickly and that the foam would rapidly take on its final form, initially appearing as solid as cooled lava; further exploration uncovered its true lightness, intimately linking it to the characteristics of its very creation. By giving form to something amorphous and indefinable, Szapocznikow was uncovering modes in which to document the impermanence of the body as a source of pain and trauma, and even eroticism, and in so doing, capturing the capriciousness of life itself.
Celebrated for her radicalization of the sculptural medium, Alina Szapocznikow's Untitled explores notions surrounding the body and memory. Part of her 'Expansions' series, the present work was executed in black poured polyurethane in 1968, and operates as both a physical and emotional manifestation of her own personal experiences. Recalling the sensuality of Louise Bourgeois, Szapocznikow's short but remarkably influential career has left a legacy of works which are both idiosyncratic and universal, a most fragmented and authentic response to condition of creating art in the complex post-war period.
The artist retained the individual nature inherent in the creative process for each sculpture by allowing the mass of black polyurethane to be shaped largely by chance, a quality she welcomed. With strong connections with sexuality and procreation, Untitled is an intensely private work, made the same year as the artist's diagnosis with breast cancer. In its soft ripples and undulations, Szapocznikow presents the germ of life, red and pulsating, drawing parallels to a beating heart. An illness in childhood deprived the artist of the possibility of carrying her own child, and the present work seems to act as a direct totem to this memory, both conceptually and physically. Here, the artist depicts the fleeting moment when life is created, using synthetic materials to symbolise this miraculous transformation that takes place within the human body. With its resemblance to the female generative organ, Untitled is connected with those later works in the artist's series which she plunged polyester casts of woman's body parts in to the foam. These sculptures of legs, breasts and torsos appear to be emerging out of molten black lava, almost primordial in their makeup.
Made in the aftermath of her first solo exhibition curated by Pierre Restany at Huston Brown Gallery in Paris and after her showing at the Venice Biennale in 1962, Szapocznikow gained new confidence in her art, which in turn, encouraged her to begin exploring new materials and subject matter. It was during this period that she first began arranging casts of woman's body parts in surprising configurations. Bellies, legs, knees were amassed to create 'human-like' forms in a fashion which paralleled Hans Bellmer's dolls. Szapocznikow soon began exploring new materials and the ways in which they too could inform her investigations into body and memory. Looking for materials that could both capture the qualities of transformation and malleability, the artist was impressed by the polyurethane Expansions by César, exhibited at the Parisian May Salon in 1967. In these works, César utilised the polyurethane's quick-spreading properties, making a unique spectacle out of the process itself. Clearly influenced by César's series, Szapocznikow became enchanted with this new material. She found that the material spread quickly and that the foam would rapidly take on its final form, initially appearing as solid as cooled lava; further exploration uncovered its true lightness, intimately linking it to the characteristics of its very creation. By giving form to something amorphous and indefinable, Szapocznikow was uncovering modes in which to document the impermanence of the body as a source of pain and trauma, and even eroticism, and in so doing, capturing the capriciousness of life itself.