STANDING NUDE

"THE PRESENT WORK DATES FROM 1921, A YEAR AFTER ARCHIPENKO'S GREAT SUCCESS WITH HIS ONE-MAN SHOW AT THE VENICE BIENNALE IN 1920. BY THIS TIME HIS ATTENTION WAS FOCUSED ON GERMANY. ALTHOUGH HE KEPT HIS PARIS STUDIO AT 77, RUE DENFERT ROCHEREAU, FROM EARLY 1921 HE LIVED IN BERLIN. THAT YEAR HE ACCOMPANIED HIS DER STURM EXHIBITION ON ITS TOUR OF FIVE GERMAN CITIES AND HELD A RETROSPECTIVE IN POTSDAM... ARCHIPENKO'S LONG-STANDING ASSOCIATION WITH DER STURM, HIS PRESENCE IN BERLIN, AND HIS ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE ARTISTIC LIFE OF THE GERMAN CAPITAL (HE HAD OPENED A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL ART SCHOOL IN 1921) LED TO HIS EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS IN GERMANY IN THE EARLY 1920S. IN 1921 ARCHIPENKO HAD MARRIED ANGELIKA SCHMITZ, AN EXPRESSIONIST SCULPTOR, WHO WAS FAMED FOR HER BEAUTY... IT IS BELIEVED THAT FEMME MIGHT WELL BE AN IDEALISED PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE, WHO HE WAS SO MUCH IN LOVE WITH. COINCIDING WITH HIS MARRIAGE AND MOVE TO BERLIN CAME A SUDDEN STYLISTIC CHANGE IN HIS WORK. AS CAN BE SEEN IN THE PRESENT WORK, ARCHIPENKO ABANDONED HIS BOLD, INNOVATIVE EXPERIMENTS OF THE PREVIOUS DECADE AND ASSUMED A MANNERED NATURALISTIC STYLE..." (EXH. CAT., NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON AND THE TEL AVIV MUSEUM, TEL AVIV, ALEXANDER ARCHIPENKO, NOVEMBER 1986 - FEBRUARY 1987, PP. 53-55)

FEMME WAS PREVIOUSLY IN THE COLLECTION OF THE CELEBRATED GERMAN DEALER FERDINAND MöLLER, WHO MOUNTED IMPORTANT EXHIBITIONS OF THE GERMAN MODERN AVANTGARDE FIRST IN HIS GALLERY IN BERLIN AND LATER IN COLOGNE. HE MUST HAVE ACQUIRED FEMME WHILE ARCHIPENKO HAD HIS TOURING EXHIBITION IN GERMANY IN 1921. AMONGST THE ARTISTS FERDINAND MöLLER CHAMPIONED MOST WERE THE MEMBERS OF THE BRCKE SUCH AS HECKEL, KIRCHNER, NOLDE, PECHSTEIN AND SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF. HE OWNED SUCH CELEBRATED WORKS AS ERICH HECKEL'S GLäSERNER TAG (TODAY IN THE STAATSGALERIE MODERNER KUNST, MNCHEN), ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER'S ARTISTIN (TODAY IN THE BRCKE MUSEUM, BERLIN), AND KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF'S SELBSTBILDNIS MIT EINGLAS (TODAY IN THE NATIONALGALERIE BERLIN).