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Lot Essay
Alongside Brancusi and Picasso, González is widely recognized as one of the foremost pioneers of modern sculpture. During the last ten years of his career, the Catalan artist -- a metalsmith by training -- produced an unprecedented series of welded iron masterpieces that brought the medium of direct-metal sculpture to a high point of refinement and sophistication. David Smith, whose own work was profoundly influenced by that of González, praised the older artist as "the father of all iron sculpture of this century" (quoted in J. Merkert, op. cit., p. 332), while Margit Rowell commented about González's singular achievement:
González transformed the face of twentieth-century sculpture from an art of representational images to an art of invention: an art of formally self-referential objects evoking ideas. A subject was no longer a model to be imitated but a theme on which to compose autonomous formal variations. A material was no longer a medium in the literal sense but the basic determinant of form. A technique was no longer relegated to the hands of a master craftsman or technician but remained in the hands of the artist alone. In fact, it was through the artist's direct realization of his work -- the direct forging of metals -- that the new vision of sculpture as we know it today was born (M. Rowell, op. cit., p. 30).
Conceived in 1935, Femme assise I is an undisputed masterpiece from González's mature period. It depicts a seated woman, her torso assembled from bare metal slabs, her head articulated only by a tiny aperture for the eye and three thin strands of flying hair. In contrast to the twiggy stick figures that González had executed the previous year, the present work is composed from a series of iron sheets patched together to create hollow, box-like volumes. Rowell attributes this new configuration to González's encounter in 1934 or 1935 with the Florentine painter Alberto Magnelli, who was experimenting at the time with images of split and piled stones. Upon seeing one of Magnelli's canvases, González reportedly exclaimed, "I would like to make a sculpture like that painting" (quoted in ibid., p. 27). The present work is also noteworthy for the delicate modulation of its surface. The melted residue at the joints and edges has been left clearly in evidence, calling attention to the innate beauty of the metal and to the elegance with which González has soldered together the various parts. The manipulated surface of the sculpture also provides a deliberate counterpoint to the purist geometry of the forms, recalling González's insistence that "one will not [create] great art in making perfect circles and squares with the aid of compass and ruler... The truly novel works...are, quite simply, those which are directly inspired by Nature, and executed with love and sincerity" (quoted in J. Withers, op. cit., p. 76).
González transformed the face of twentieth-century sculpture from an art of representational images to an art of invention: an art of formally self-referential objects evoking ideas. A subject was no longer a model to be imitated but a theme on which to compose autonomous formal variations. A material was no longer a medium in the literal sense but the basic determinant of form. A technique was no longer relegated to the hands of a master craftsman or technician but remained in the hands of the artist alone. In fact, it was through the artist's direct realization of his work -- the direct forging of metals -- that the new vision of sculpture as we know it today was born (M. Rowell, op. cit., p. 30).
Conceived in 1935, Femme assise I is an undisputed masterpiece from González's mature period. It depicts a seated woman, her torso assembled from bare metal slabs, her head articulated only by a tiny aperture for the eye and three thin strands of flying hair. In contrast to the twiggy stick figures that González had executed the previous year, the present work is composed from a series of iron sheets patched together to create hollow, box-like volumes. Rowell attributes this new configuration to González's encounter in 1934 or 1935 with the Florentine painter Alberto Magnelli, who was experimenting at the time with images of split and piled stones. Upon seeing one of Magnelli's canvases, González reportedly exclaimed, "I would like to make a sculpture like that painting" (quoted in ibid., p. 27). The present work is also noteworthy for the delicate modulation of its surface. The melted residue at the joints and edges has been left clearly in evidence, calling attention to the innate beauty of the metal and to the elegance with which González has soldered together the various parts. The manipulated surface of the sculpture also provides a deliberate counterpoint to the purist geometry of the forms, recalling González's insistence that "one will not [create] great art in making perfect circles and squares with the aid of compass and ruler... The truly novel works...are, quite simply, those which are directly inspired by Nature, and executed with love and sincerity" (quoted in J. Withers, op. cit., p. 76).