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Lot Essay
The Torso in Space series is one of Archipenko's major achievements of the mid-1930s, and was created while the artist was living in Los Angeles. According to Donald Karshan, there are several versions of this sculpture. The first version was executed in 1935 measuring 20 in. (50.8 cm.). Archipenko subsequently cast a second version measuring 22½ in. (57.1 cm.) and in 1936 he enlarged the work to 60 in. (152.5 cm.).
The present sculpture shows Archipenko's enlarged monumental female figure as an elegant abstracted form. Karshan writes, "The centuries-old theme of the reclining woman was expressed by sculptors as integral to the base on which the figure reposed. Archipenko 'freed' this subject from its horizontal moorings, so to speak, in a streamlined, curvilinear, near-abstract shape of the female form that appears to float or be independent of its base" (D. Karshan, 1985, op. cit., p. 5).
The present sculpture shows Archipenko's enlarged monumental female figure as an elegant abstracted form. Karshan writes, "The centuries-old theme of the reclining woman was expressed by sculptors as integral to the base on which the figure reposed. Archipenko 'freed' this subject from its horizontal moorings, so to speak, in a streamlined, curvilinear, near-abstract shape of the female form that appears to float or be independent of its base" (D. Karshan, 1985, op. cit., p. 5).