Description

Alexander Archipenko was a noted Cubist sculptor who was one of the first to emulate Picasso and promote the Cubist movement by creating and exhibiting Cubist sculpture at important venues such as the 1913 Armory Show in New York City.  This small drawing may have been a study or a "thought on paper" by the artist because it is a very close two-dimensional depiction of the sculptural forms for which he became famous.  This would be fun to own.

Details

• Alexander Archipenko (Ukrainian/American, 1887-1964)
• Untitled 
• Pastel on paper
  
• Signed in lower right hand corner
  
• 14 1/4" x 11" (overall) 8 1/2" x 5" (sight)
• Newly framed in a gold gilt frame under UV plexiglass
• Even toning to paper

About the Artist

Avant-garde artist Alexander Archipenko was born in the Ukraine in 1897. Like many fellow Ukrainian artists of the period, such as Sonia Delaunay-Terk and Nathan Altman, Archipenko moved to Paris in 1908 to join the burgeoning avant-garde art scene. There he joined the La Ruche artist’s colony and became an early practitioner of Cubism. Primarily a sculptor, he was (along with the French-Hungarian sculptor Joseph Csaky) one of the first to exhibit Cubist sculptures at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne in 1910 and 1911.  Following Picasso’s example, Archipenko used faceted planes and negative space to create a new way of looking at the human figure, showing a number of views of the subject simultaneously. His innovative work traveled to America in 1913. Five of his cubist sculptures, including Family Life, as well as five of his drawings appeared in the controversial Armory Show in New York City that year. In 1920 he exhibited in the Venice Biennale and then emigrated to the United States in1923. In 1936 Archipenko participated in the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art in New York as well as numerous other exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to his talent as an artist, Archipenko was a teacher who established art schools in Paris and Berlin before his emigration to the United States. His works are in the collections of prominent private and public collections around the world, including those of the Guggenheim and MOMA in New York City, the Tate Modern in London, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Alexander Archipenko died on February 25, 1964, in New York City.