Archipenko exhibition to inaugurate new museum building (03/27/05)

PREVIEW: THE NEW UKRAINIAN MUSEUM IN NEW YORK CITY

Archipenko exhibition to inaugurate new museum building

NEW YORK - The new facility of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City will open on April 3 with the inaugural exhibition "Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity," consisting of some 65 sculptures and sculpto-paintings of one of the 20th century's most innovative and influential artists.

The majority of the works are from the collection of Frances Archipenko Gray, the artist's widow. Other works come from a number of private collections and museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and Yale University Art Gallery.

Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) was born in Kyiv, where he studied art at the Kyiv Art Institute until 1905. In 1906 he moved to Moscow, and in 1908 to Paris. Archipenko established his reputation as a revolutionary innovator in the art world of Paris in the first decades of the 20th century, working in the milieu of artists like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Constantin Brancusi.

In 1921 Archipenko moved to Berlin, and in 1923 he came to the United States, settling in Bearsville, N.Y. (near Woodstock). He remained in America for the rest of his life - a 40-year period of prodigious creative output. Archipenko was an important pedagogue and ran his own art school. He also taught and worked in many institutions of higher learning from coast to coast, as well as in the New Bauhaus in Chicago.

Dr. Jaroslaw Leshko, professor emeritus of art history at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., is the curator of the Alexander Archipenko exhibition and the author of the comprehensive analytical essay in the exhibition's fully illustrated, bilingual (English-Ukrainian), 180-page catalogue. Prof. Leshko has organized the exhibition around four dominant concepts: form and space; motion and stasis; construction, materials, color; and content into form.

"This approach allows the visitor to explore vital continuities in Archipenko's art," said Prof. Leshko, "since each of these rubrics was revisited and reinterpreted in every phase of his career." It also allows for striking juxtapositions across time, underscoring a continuous, evolving artistic vision.

Form and space

Archipenko's greatest and best-known contribution to the vocabulary of modernism lay in his reassessment of the relationship between solid and void, notes Prof. Leshko. "This manifested itself in the exploration of concave/convex forms, and especially in his substitution of a void for a head or a torso - his most important and radical innovation," he adds. "Archipenko would continue to explore the concave/convex, solid/void relationship in brilliant permutations throughout his career."

Some of the artist's most important works belong in this category: "Silhouette (Woman with Umbrella)" (1913), "Geometric Statuette" (1914), "Woman Combing Hair" (1915), "Green Concave" (1913-1915), "Flat Torso" (1914), "Walking" (1912-1918), "Seated Woman" (1920).

In the later phase of his career, Archipenko consistently utilized the concave/convex motif, and the solid/void transformation also continued to inform his vision. "Seated Figure" (1947), "Oval Figure" (1957), and "Queen of Sheba" (1961) are compelling examples of his later exploration of the void.

Motion and stasis

Archipenko's interest in movement dates back to the outset of his career. It reflects a general interest at the time in defining modernity through motion. According to Prof. Leshko, "it also speaks of his restless, inventive temperament, fascinated with the vitality and variety of human form in motion."

"Dance" (1912-1913), "Blue Dancer" (1913), "Boxers" (1914), and "Walking" (1912-1918) are among Archipenko's most important early examples of motion in sculpture. Walking as a motif recurs in every decade of his career, each time brilliantly transformed.

These works have a counterpoint in Archipenko's imagery of stasis that is, in Prof. Leshko's words, "still, iconic and contemplative." Works like "Vase Woman I" (1918), "Torso in Space" (1935) and "Dignity" (1961) belong to this group. In certain works both motion and stasis are implicit, as in "Penché" (1913) and "Gondolier" (1914). "Revolving Figure" (1956) is a literal translation of this idea.

Construction, materials, color

Archipenko's challenge to the process of sculpture and its traditional materials was boldly announced in his construction "Médrano I" (1912-1914). His fascination with various materials startlingly juxtaposed continued and evolved throughout his career, constantly incorporating new processes and materials like plastic, bakelite and formica. "Woman Standing" (1920) and "Woman (Metal Lady)" (1923) are important examples. His later works include "Seated Figure" (1947), "Oval Figure" (1957) "White" (1957) and "Cleopatra" (1957).

"No other sculptor of the 20th century involved color in his imagery as insistently and consistently as Archipenko," Prof. Leshko points out. "Carrousel Pierrot" (1913) is an early, brilliant example of orchestrating color through form and form through color. Archipenko invented a new category of sculpto-painting to investigate the symbiosis between painting and sculpture. "Bather" (1915) and "Woman with Fan" (1915) are early examples. He revitalized the art of painted wood and terra-cotta in such compelling works as "Architectural Figure" (1950).

Content into form

Archipenko's revolutionary innovations are manifest in a context of rich and varied content. In his works he explores extensively the world of entertainment from circus to boxing to dance in works like "Médrano I" 1912-1914), "Médrano II" (1913), "Boxers" (1914), and "Dancers" (1912). He addresses historical figures like "Cleopatra" (1957) and "Queen of Sheba" (1961). He taps into a rich emotional vein in works like "Sorrow (Tristesse)" (1909), "Feminine Solitude" (1921), "Mâ-Meditation (1932) and "Dignity" (1961). He also touches on religious themes like "Adam and Eve" (1909) and "Ascension" (1950). These examples are indicative of Archipenko's broad range of interests and their central role in his creative expression. Archipenko's extensive writings on art underscore the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of his innovations.

As its title implies, "Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity" demonstrates the sustainability of the artist's vision and reiterates that he stayed true to his core principles throughout his life. Adds Prof. Leshko: "The exhibition affords visitors an opportunity to explore and experience the creative breath and sheer beauty of the art of one of the 20th century's most influential and innovative sculptors."

The Ukrainian Museum has organized a variety of public programming to augment the Archipenko exhibition, including tours, gallery talks, a lecture series, a symposium, and a full range of educational material for teachers, students and families.

The Alexander Archipenko exhibition is the first of three inaugural exhibitions planned for the new Ukrainian Museum building - a state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-foot, $9 million facility at 222 E. Sixth St. in the heart of the East Village.

The materials in this special section were prepared by Marta Baczynsky and Romana Labrosse.

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