Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964)

Birth of Venus

Details

Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964)
Birth of Venus
signed and dated twice on the back 'Archipenko 54'
polychromed bronze, granite and blue turquoise
Height: 12 1/8in. (31cm.)
Cast in 1954; number five in an edition of six

Provenance

Perls Galleries, New York

Literature

A. Archipenko, Archipenko, Fifty Creative Years 1908-1958, New York, 1960, pl. 12 (another cast illustrated in color)
D. Karshan, Archipenko: International Visionary, Washington, D. C., 1969, no. 60 (another cast illustrated, pl. 146, p. 94)
D. Karshan, Archipenko Sculpture, Drawings and Prints 1908-1963, Danville, Kentucky, 1985, no. 86 (another cast illustrated in color, p. 157)
D. Karshan, Archipenko, Themes and Variations, 1908-1963, Dayton Beach, Florida, 1989, p. 73 (another cast illustrated)

Lot Essay

The Birth of Venus represents a late flowering of the baroque tendencies which are evident periodically during Archipenko's career. Waves and sea-foam give birth to the goddess, who in turn appears to bring forth her own primordial progeny in the form of the granite rock. The assemblage of contrasting textures, materials and shapes implies a metaphor for the sculptural process itself, in which elemental forms are reworked in an increasingly complex manner, only to be reduced to absolute simplicity once again.