Alexander Archipenko (1887-1965)

Gruppe (Feminine Solitude)

Details

Alexander Archipenko (1887-1965)
Gruppe (Feminine Solitude)
signed 'Archipenko' (on the front of the base)
white marble
Height (including the marble base): 32¼ in. (81.9 cm.)
Conceived in 1912; this marble version carved by 1929

Provenance

Braxton Gallery, Los Angeles.
Josef von Sternberg, Los Angeles (acquired from the above, 1929); sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 22 November 1949, lot 63.
Charles C.G. Chaplin, Gladwyne; sale, Christie's, New York, 14 November 1984, lot 560.
Perls Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale).
Ronnie Meyerson, Inc., New York.
Robert Nowinski, Seattle (acquired from the above).
Joan Michelman, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1995.

Literature

M. Raynal, Alexander Archipenko, Rome, 1923, no. 32 (another version illustrated).
E. Wiese, "Alexander Archipenko", in Junge Kunst, 1923, vol. XXXX, pl. XVI (faience version illustrated).
D. Karshan, Archipenko, Sculpture and Graphic Art, Including a Print Catalogue Raisonné, Tübingen, 1974, p. 98 (faience version illustrated).
D. Karshan, Archipenko, Sculpture, Drawings and Prints, 1908-1963, Kentucky, 1985, p. 85, no. 38 (another version illustrated, p. 93).
G. W. Költzsch, ed., Alexander Archipenko, Werke von 1908 bis 1963 aus dem testamentarischen Vermächtnis, Saarbrücken, 1986, no. 45 (another version illustrated, p. 105).
A. Barth, Alexander Archipenko plastisches Oeuvre, Frankfurt, 1997, vol. 2, no. 121 (another version illustrated, p. 243).

Exhibited

Los Angeles, Braxton Galleries, The Archipenko Exhibition, 1929, no. 25.
Los Angeles County Museum, The Collection of Josef von Sternberg, 1943, no. 62.
Roslyn, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art and Princeton Art Museum, 20th Century Master Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture from the Nowinski Collection, May 1992-July 1993.
Seattle, Henry Art Gallery, Modern Masters and the Figure, September-November 1993.

Lot Essay

Donald Karshan, a leading authority on Archipenko's career and who also owned a version of this sculpture (see sale, Christie's, London, 24 June 2003, lot 66), described Gruppe (Feminine Solitude) as "Archipenko's most ambitious as well as his largest early carving" (op. cit., p. 85). Conceived in 1912, it was also cast in faience (last recorded in the collection of the Stadel-Museum, Frankfurt am Main, currently unknown; however no bronze examples exist).

In October 1923, with Europe's economic and social situation
worsening, Archipenko and his wife Angelica left Berlin for America.
Just three months later, in January 1924, Archipenko had his first one man exhibition in New York at the Société Anonyme, Kingore
Gallery, and he included a carving of Gruppe (Feminine Solitude) in this landmark show.

The present marble was featured in Archipenko's 1929 exhibition at the Braxton Gallery in Los Angeles where it was purchased by the film director Josef von Sternberg. Like Archipenko, Von Sternberg had come to America in the year following the First World War. He is best known for the silent movies he made with Charlie Chaplin in the 1920s and the six movies he made with Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s, which include The Blue Angel (1930) and The Devil is a Woman (1935). Angel (1930) and The Devil is a Woman (1935).

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