Lot Essay
One of Gonzlez's most striking and memorable sculptures, Form trs fine is an extremely elegant synthesis of simple forms whose refined abstraction establishes it as the single work in Gonzlez's oeuvre that most closely prefigures the purely abstract constructions of David Smith and Anthony Caro in the 1950's and 1960's.
An extremely subtle construction, the elegant symmetry of the work is achieved solely by the carving through space of a lovingly crafted arc that climbs to a point at the very top of the sculpture lying vertically in line with its stem. Twisting slightly as it ascends, it is the gentle spiralling of this arc that gives the sculpture its character and grace. Yet even here in what is one of Gonzlez's most abstract forms, the sculpture mimics the female form by suggesting the gentle rhythm of movement to be found in a woman's back or perhaps the curve of the back of a head as it meets the neck.
Executed in 1937,Form trs fine may relate to a number of drawings such as Personnage Epe or Femme courbe of the same period. Although more sharply angled and accentuating more clumsily the remarkably graceful curve of the sculpture, these drawings bear a striking formal resemblance that suggests that Form trs fine, like Forme Svre is part of some specific formal obsession that Gonzlez had at this time.
An extremely subtle construction, the elegant symmetry of the work is achieved solely by the carving through space of a lovingly crafted arc that climbs to a point at the very top of the sculpture lying vertically in line with its stem. Twisting slightly as it ascends, it is the gentle spiralling of this arc that gives the sculpture its character and grace. Yet even here in what is one of Gonzlez's most abstract forms, the sculpture mimics the female form by suggesting the gentle rhythm of movement to be found in a woman's back or perhaps the curve of the back of a head as it meets the neck.
Executed in 1937,Form trs fine may relate to a number of drawings such as Personnage Epe or Femme courbe of the same period. Although more sharply angled and accentuating more clumsily the remarkably graceful curve of the sculpture, these drawings bear a striking formal resemblance that suggests that Form trs fine, like Forme Svre is part of some specific formal obsession that Gonzlez had at this time.