Lot Essay
Dès 1907, à la suite d’un court séjour au Bateau Lavoir chez son ami Picasso, et de la découverte de ses premières études pour Les demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Gargallo est le premier à entamer des recherches qui mèneront à la sculpture cubiste. Si la première guerre mondiale porte un sévère coup d’arrêt à ses expérimentations, un nouveau séjour à Paris en 1920 et ses retrouvailles avec les amis d’autrefois – Picasso, Lipchitz, Laurens, Gris, entres autres – lui donne un souffle nouveau. A son retour à Barcelone, il se lance avec une audace décuplée dans une série de sculptures, inaugurée par Mujer con sombrilla, ici présentée. A l’aide de feuilles de plomb martelées, Gargallo emploie pour la première fois des surfaces concaves pour les parties du corps qui devraient au contraire saillir, les volumes étant créés par ces espaces vides. Cette œuvre majeure, jalon de la sculpture cubiste, fut récemment redécouverte après que sa trace a été perdue depuis sa vente à un amateur non identifié au Salon d’automne en 1923.
As early as 1907, after a short stay in Paris with his friend Picasso at the Bateau Lavoir where he discovered the first studies for Les demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Gargallo became the first artist to explore sculpture under a cubist perspective. Whereas the onset of the World War I had abruptly interrupted his progress, his return to Paris in 1920 and to prior friendships – with Picasso, Lipchitz, Laurens, Gris , among others – gave him a fresh creative boost. On his return to Barcelona, he embarked with renewed audacity on a series of sculptures, the first of which was Mujer con sombrilla, presented here. Using hammered sheets of lead, he employed for the first time concave surfaces in place of projected forms, allowing volumes to be modelled by empty space. This significant work, a milestone of cubist sculpture, has only recently been rediscovered having been considered lost since its sale to an unidentified collector at the Salon d’automne in 1923.
As early as 1907, after a short stay in Paris with his friend Picasso at the Bateau Lavoir where he discovered the first studies for Les demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Gargallo became the first artist to explore sculpture under a cubist perspective. Whereas the onset of the World War I had abruptly interrupted his progress, his return to Paris in 1920 and to prior friendships – with Picasso, Lipchitz, Laurens, Gris , among others – gave him a fresh creative boost. On his return to Barcelona, he embarked with renewed audacity on a series of sculptures, the first of which was Mujer con sombrilla, presented here. Using hammered sheets of lead, he employed for the first time concave surfaces in place of projected forms, allowing volumes to be modelled by empty space. This significant work, a milestone of cubist sculpture, has only recently been rediscovered having been considered lost since its sale to an unidentified collector at the Salon d’automne in 1923.