Sale: 590 / Evening Sale, June 06. 2025 in Munich 
Lot 125000329
Lot 125000329
Back side
125000329
Alexander Archipenko
Symmetrischer Torso, 1921/1997.
Bronze with greenish patina
Estimate:
€ 70,000 - 90,000
$ 75,600 - 97,200
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Symmetrischer Torso. 1921/1997.
Bronze with greenish patina.
With the name, date, and number stamped on the side. Copy 6/8 F from a series of 6 known bronze copies. Height: 72 cm (28.3 in).
Cast authorized by the Alexander Archipenko Foundation, New York. Posthumously cast by Modern Art Foundry, USA.
• A reduced sculpture of timeless elegance.
• Archipenko elevates the relationship between sculpture and space, volume and line to the defining principle.
• Once left behind in Europe, the plaster model of this work found its way back to the artist in 1956.
• Archipenko's sculptures are among the most innovative statements in avant-garde sculpture.
• Vibrant patina with a particularly fine luster.
PROVENANCE: Frances Archipenko Gray Collection, New York.
Galerie Thomas, Munich (acquired from the above).
Private collection, Rhineland-Palatinate (acquired from the above in 2012).
EXHIBITION: Archipenko, Galerie Maeght, Paris, 1997/98 (illustrated on p. 73).
LITERATURE: Hans Hildebrandt, Alexandre Archipenko. Sein oeuvre, Berlin 1923, catalogue raisonné no. 21 (marble version).
Anette Barth, Alexander Archipenko's plastisches Oeuvre. Vol. 2: Catalogue raisonné, Frankfurt am Main 1997, no. 137 (marble version, see note on p. 268 regarding the marble, terracotta, and early bronze versions).
This work is listed in the catalogue raisonné on the official website of the Alexander Archipenko Foundation under the number “s.21-01” and the work number “2294.”
-
Galerie Thomas (ed.), Alexander Archipenko. Skulpturen, Munich 2009, p. 36 (illustrated).
Bronze with greenish patina.
With the name, date, and number stamped on the side. Copy 6/8 F from a series of 6 known bronze copies. Height: 72 cm (28.3 in).
Cast authorized by the Alexander Archipenko Foundation, New York. Posthumously cast by Modern Art Foundry, USA.
• A reduced sculpture of timeless elegance.
• Archipenko elevates the relationship between sculpture and space, volume and line to the defining principle.
• Once left behind in Europe, the plaster model of this work found its way back to the artist in 1956.
• Archipenko's sculptures are among the most innovative statements in avant-garde sculpture.
• Vibrant patina with a particularly fine luster.
PROVENANCE: Frances Archipenko Gray Collection, New York.
Galerie Thomas, Munich (acquired from the above).
Private collection, Rhineland-Palatinate (acquired from the above in 2012).
EXHIBITION: Archipenko, Galerie Maeght, Paris, 1997/98 (illustrated on p. 73).
LITERATURE: Hans Hildebrandt, Alexandre Archipenko. Sein oeuvre, Berlin 1923, catalogue raisonné no. 21 (marble version).
Anette Barth, Alexander Archipenko's plastisches Oeuvre. Vol. 2: Catalogue raisonné, Frankfurt am Main 1997, no. 137 (marble version, see note on p. 268 regarding the marble, terracotta, and early bronze versions).
This work is listed in the catalogue raisonné on the official website of the Alexander Archipenko Foundation under the number “s.21-01” and the work number “2294.”
-
Galerie Thomas (ed.), Alexander Archipenko. Skulpturen, Munich 2009, p. 36 (illustrated).
Born in Kyiv in 1887, Alexander Archipenko left his homeland for France in 1908. Settling in Paris, he became acquainted with avant-garde painters such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Amedeo Modigliani, which led to Cubism finding its way into his artistic work. While he tended toward sharp contours and fragmentary, convex-concave arrangements during this period, his “Symmetrical Torso” tied in with the new classicism that flourished in Europe after World War I. Archipenko emphasized a reductionist, classical impulse, transforming the human body into an elegant formal language. The relationship between sculpture and space, as well as between volume and line, became his defining criterion. Female nudes became one of his favorite subjects. The artist paid homage to beauty with his works and made it visible to the viewer. The present “Symmetrical Torso” is an excellent example of this endeavor.
Archipenko was particularly successful in establishing commercial contacts in Germany, where he had his first exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Hagen in 1912, followed by shows at Herwarth Walden's gallery "Der Sturm" in Berlin, and Hans Goltz's gallery "Neue Kunst" in Munich the following year. He left Paris for Berlin in 1920; however, increasing political and economic uncertainty forced him to immigrate to the US in 1923. Early on, he focused on combining highly modern and traditional practices. After his emigration, he used the innovative techniques and materials he suddenly had at his disposal. Until the 1950s, Archipenko had hardly enough financial means to realize his works in bronze. It was not until the end of this decade, and thus only in the last years of his life, that he was allowed to experiment with patinated multicolored surfaces when the renowned Perls Galleries in New York represented him. At the same time, he could recover early plaster models he had left behind in Europe. The plaster figure of our work made its way back in 1956, and in 1959, he began a bronze edition. The harmony and beauty of Archipenko's “Symmetrical Torso,” combined with its iridescent green patina, are unparalleled. [AW]
Archipenko was particularly successful in establishing commercial contacts in Germany, where he had his first exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Hagen in 1912, followed by shows at Herwarth Walden's gallery "Der Sturm" in Berlin, and Hans Goltz's gallery "Neue Kunst" in Munich the following year. He left Paris for Berlin in 1920; however, increasing political and economic uncertainty forced him to immigrate to the US in 1923. Early on, he focused on combining highly modern and traditional practices. After his emigration, he used the innovative techniques and materials he suddenly had at his disposal. Until the 1950s, Archipenko had hardly enough financial means to realize his works in bronze. It was not until the end of this decade, and thus only in the last years of his life, that he was allowed to experiment with patinated multicolored surfaces when the renowned Perls Galleries in New York represented him. At the same time, he could recover early plaster models he had left behind in Europe. The plaster figure of our work made its way back in 1956, and in 1959, he began a bronze edition. The harmony and beauty of Archipenko's “Symmetrical Torso,” combined with its iridescent green patina, are unparalleled. [AW]
125000329
Alexander Archipenko
Symmetrischer Torso, 1921/1997.
Bronze with greenish patina
Estimate:
€ 70,000 - 90,000
$ 75,600 - 97,200
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
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We will inform you in time.