Figure
1917
Alexander Archipenko (Russian/American, 1887-1964)
Not on View

Alexander Archipenko was born in Kiev, Ukraine, but moved to Paris by age 22. His contact with the burgeoning style of Cubism and the movement toward abstraction led the artist to discontinue his training at the conservative École des Beaux-Arts. Instead, he studied independently at museums around the city and began to exhibit—mostly sculpture—alongside Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger, among others. When World War I began, Archipenko moved to the south of France, but because he did not have a studio, he worked primarily in two-dimensional media. Figure dates to this time and relates a new technique the artist called “sculpto-painting”—a method of creating reliefs using glass, wood, and metal. In 1923 the Archipenkos moved to New York and it was in the American metropolis where the collector and champion of European modernism, Galka Scheyer, came to know the artist. When he presented Scheyer with this work, he inscribed it “to Mrs. Scheyer” and dated it “1924 New York”.

Details

  • Artist Name: Alexander Archipenko (Russian/American, 1887-1964)
  • Title: Figure
  • Date: 1917
  • Medium: Gouache, watercolor and pencil on wove paper
  • Dimensions: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.191
  • Copyright: © 2017 Estate of Alexander Archipenko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Reproduction, including downloading of ARS works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Object Information

The artist, gift Christmas, 1924, to;
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

Bauhaus Painters; Spirit of Modernism: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Oskar Schlemmer, Alexander Archipenko, Alexei Jawlensky and Others

  • Seoul, Ho-Am Art Museum, 1996-02-08 to 1996-04-28

Thirty European Modernists

  • Oakland Art Gallery, 1928-01-04 to 1928-01-29

European Modernists

  • Los Angeles, California School of Fine Arts, 1927-04 to ?-

East Meets West: Russian Art from the 18th through the 20th Century

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1987-10-01 to 1988-04-17

The Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection From The Norton Simon Museum

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1997-07-17 to 1997-10-05

The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14

Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2017-04-07 to 2017-09-25

From Europe to California: Galka Scheyer and the Avant-Garde

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2003-05-16 to 2003-10-13
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 312 p. 133
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 352 pp. 346-347
  • Gilbert Holzgang, Galka Scheyer : Ein Leben für Kunst und Kreativität, 2023, p. 154 (ill.)

Additional Artwork by Artist

Angelica Alexander Archipenko 1922
Figure Alexander Archipenko 1917
Figure Study Alexander Archipenko 1921

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