Alexander Archipenko
Femme Assise (Seated Woman), 1912/1970
Bronze
15 3/4 x 7 5/8 x 6 7/8 in
40 x 19.4 x 17.5 cm
40 x 19.4 x 17.5 cm
According to the catalogue raisonné there are 15 known bronzes of 'Femme assise' which were cast between 1966 and 1972
Inscribed Archipenko, Paris 1912, 11/12 FG
According to the catalogue raisonné there are 15 known bronzes of 'Femme assise', which were cast between 1966 and 1972 This subject exists in plaster, terracotta and a posthumous bronze...
According to the catalogue raisonné there are 15 known bronzes of 'Femme assise', which were cast between 1966 and 1972
This subject exists in plaster, terracotta and a posthumous bronze edition. Prior to his immigration to the United States in 1923, Archipenko stored the plaster with friends, Zina and Jean Verdier in the South of France. He retrieved the plaster in 1960. The posthumous bronze edition was issued and completed by the estate. This bronze, cast in 1970, is recorded in the Archipenko Foundation with the Work ID2979.
As Katherine Janszky Michaelson has discussed in 'Archipenko: A study of the Early Works 1908-1920', in 'Femme Assise', Archipenko was experimenting with one of the basic tenets of Cubism-to show simultaneously more than one view of an object. When viewed from a stationary position the sculpture reveals a composite of frontal and profile views, which necessarily requires the artist to distort the composition from previously more conventional and naturalistic ways of portraying the female nude. A similar distortion can be seen in Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', 1907, (Museum of Modern Art, New York), between the thigh and the waist of the seated figure in the right corner'.
The subject of ‘Femme Assise’, was included in Archipenko's first ever solo exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Hagen in 1912 and at the pioneering avant-garde gallery Der Sturm in 1913. The present bronze (this cast)was included in the Saarland museum, Saarbrücken, Alexander Archipenko retrospective exhibition, 18 October2008-18 January 2009.
In 1997 the publishing house Maeght Éditeur published a volume of the collected texts on Archipenko (including those by Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendras, Ivan Roll, Gérard-Georges Lemaire and Maurice Raynal) and a bronze of 'Femme Assise' was included on the cover.
This subject exists in plaster, terracotta and a posthumous bronze edition. Prior to his immigration to the United States in 1923, Archipenko stored the plaster with friends, Zina and Jean Verdier in the South of France. He retrieved the plaster in 1960. The posthumous bronze edition was issued and completed by the estate. This bronze, cast in 1970, is recorded in the Archipenko Foundation with the Work ID2979.
As Katherine Janszky Michaelson has discussed in 'Archipenko: A study of the Early Works 1908-1920', in 'Femme Assise', Archipenko was experimenting with one of the basic tenets of Cubism-to show simultaneously more than one view of an object. When viewed from a stationary position the sculpture reveals a composite of frontal and profile views, which necessarily requires the artist to distort the composition from previously more conventional and naturalistic ways of portraying the female nude. A similar distortion can be seen in Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', 1907, (Museum of Modern Art, New York), between the thigh and the waist of the seated figure in the right corner'.
The subject of ‘Femme Assise’, was included in Archipenko's first ever solo exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Hagen in 1912 and at the pioneering avant-garde gallery Der Sturm in 1913. The present bronze (this cast)was included in the Saarland museum, Saarbrücken, Alexander Archipenko retrospective exhibition, 18 October2008-18 January 2009.
In 1997 the publishing house Maeght Éditeur published a volume of the collected texts on Archipenko (including those by Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendras, Ivan Roll, Gérard-Georges Lemaire and Maurice Raynal) and a bronze of 'Femme Assise' was included on the cover.
Provenance
Private collection, USALiterature
[no author]. Alexander Archipenko. Sturm Bilderbuch II. Berlin: Verlag Der Sturm, 1917 p. p. 6.Schacht, Roland. Alexander Archipenko: Sturm Bilderbüch II. Berlin: Verlag Der Sturm, 1923 p. 23.
Dorival, Bernard. “Les Omissions d’Archipenko et de Lipchitz.” Bulletin de la Societe de l’histoire de l’art francais, (1974) cat no. 43.
Karshan, Donald. “Les révolutions d’ Alexander Archipenko.” Plaisir de France 40, No. 421 (July 1974).
Michaelsen, Katherine Jánszky. "Archipenko: A Study of the Early Works 1908-1920." Doctoral Dissertation, New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1977 p. 62-64, 166 plate no. S32 cat no. S32.
Barth, Anette. "Alexander Archipenkos plastisches Oeuvre, Teile I und II." Doctoral dissertation, University of Trier, Peter Lang: 1997 p. 78, 79 cat no. 36.
Maeght Éditeur (texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendras, Ivan Goll, Gérard-Georges Lemaire and Maurice Raynal), Archipenko, Paris, 1997, p. 48, ill. p. 49 and on the cover.
[no author]. Modern Art at The McNay. North New Braunfels: Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, 2001.
Keiser, Alexandra. "Alexander Archipenko: Bronzes." In Posthumous Bronzes in Law and Art History, International Colloquium, edited by Mikhail Piotrovsky. St. Petersburg, Russia: The State Hermitage Museum, pp. 57 - 63, 2012 (English and Russian) p. 58, 59.
Publications
Examples of 'Seated Woman' (Femme Assise) have been included in the following exhibitions:1912, Museum Folkwang, Hagen, Le Fauconnier, Alexander Archipenko (the terracotta).
1913, Der Sturm, Berlin, Siebzehnte Ausstellung, Alexandre Archipenko cat. no. 7 (the terracotta).
1919, Salle d’Exposition de la Librairie Kundig, Geneva, Art Moderne, Tournée de l’Exposition de Sculptures, Sculpto-Peintures, Peintures, Dessins de Alexandre Archipenko (tour) cat. no. 10? (the terracotta).
1967, UCLA Art Museum, Los Angeles, Alexander Archipenko: A Memorial Exhibition (tour) cat. no. 13 ill. p. 39 (another example).
1969, Musée Rodin, Paris, Archipenko International Visionary (tour) cat. no. 13 ill. p. 37 (another example).
1981, Helen Serger la boetie, Inc., New York, Herwarth Walden and Der Sturm ill. p. 29 (another example).
1985, The Norton Center for the Arts, Center College, Danville, Archipenko: Sculpture, Drawings and Prints, 1908-1963, As Collected, Viewed, and Documented by Donald Karshan cat. no. 12 ill. pp. 33, 42, 43 (another example).
1991, Galeria Freites, Caracas, Alexander Archipenko ill. p. 16 (another example).
1991, Rachel Adler Gallery, New York, Alexander Archipenko: The Creative Process cat. no. 3 ill. (another example).
1992, Galerie Thomas, München, Alexander Archipenko: Skulpturen (THIS EXAMPLE).
1993, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Modern Masters and the Figure: Picasso to de Kooning (another example).
1997-1998, Galerie Maeght, Paris, Archipenko [no cat. no.] ill. p. 49 (another example).
2001, U.S. Embassy Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukrainian Roots, American Visions (another example).
2005, The Ukrainian Museum, New York, Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity cat. no. 11 ill. pp. 158, 236 (THIS EXAMPLE).
2008-2009, Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken, Alexander Archipenko cat. no. L4 ill. pp. 62, 202 (THIS EXAMPLE).
2009, Galerie Thomas, München, Alexander Archipenko: Skulpturen, Sculptures ill. pp. 20, 21 (THIS EXAMPLE).
2009, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, Oublier Rodin? La sculpture a Paris, 1905 a 1914 cat. no. 78 ill. pp. 184, 278 (another example).
2012, The State Hermitage Museum, Storage and Restoration Center, St. Petersburg, Posthumous Bronzes in Law and Art History ill. p. 59 (another example).
2013, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, The Human Face and Form (another example).
2015, Palmer Museum of Art, State College, Archipenko: A Modern Legacy (tour) (another example).
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