Julio Gonzlez (1876-1942)
Julio Gonzlez (1876-1942)

Forme rigide (Forme trs fine)

Details
Julio Gonzlez (1876-1942)
Forme rigide (Forme trs fine)
welded iron
39in. (99cm.) high including base
34 1/2in. (87.7cm.) high excluding base
Executed circa 1937, this piece is unique
Literature
J. Merkert, Julio Gonzlez, catalogue raisonn des sculptures, Milan 1987, no. 227 (illustrated p. 258).
Exhibited
New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Julio Gonzlez: A Retrospective, March-May 1983, no. 215b (illustrated p. 178). This exhibition later travelled to Frankfurt-am-Main, Stdtische Galerie im Stdelschen Kunstinstitut, Julio Gonzlez 1876-1942 Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Kunstgewerbe, June-August 1983, no. 110 (illustrated p. 176) and Berlin, Akademie der Knste, September-October 1983.
Cajarc, La Maison des Arts Georges Pompidou, Hans Hartung dialogue avec Julio Gonzlez, June-September 1991 (illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Valencia, IVAM Centre Julio Gonzlez, October 1991-January 1992.
Paris, Galerie de France, Une rencontre: Hans Hartung et Julio Gonzlez 1935-1952, January-March 1992, no. 28 (illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Lugano, Galleria Pieter Coray, April-May 1992.
Bern, Kunstmuseum, Julio Gonzlez - Zeichnen im Raum/Dessiner dans l'espace, June-September 1997, no. 168 (illustrated p. 193).
Otterlo, Krller-Mller Museum, Picasso, Gonzlez, Mir en Chillida: Experiment en ruimte, November 1997-January 1998, no. 32 (illustrated pp. 114-115).

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.

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