Alexander Archipenko (American, born in Ukraine, 1887-1964). Reclining. 1922
Bronze, 17 ½ x 11 x 11 ¼ in. (44.5 x 27.9 x 28.6 cm)
Bequest of Ruth P. Phillips
2005.23.5
Widely acknowledged as the first Cubist sculptor, Alexander Archipenko held a lifelong fascination with the human figure in the round. He began studies at the School of Art in Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine) in 1902 but was forced to leave in 1905 after criticizing the rigid academicism of his instructors. Next he lived briefly in Moscow before settling in Paris in 1909, where he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts. Yet he left after just two weeks of formal studies, believing that he could teach himself through the direct study of sculpture in the Musée du Louvre.
By 1910, Archipenko began exhibiting with the Cubists at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne in Paris, earning international renown for his nearly abstract sculptures. Following his marriage in 1921 to German sculptor Angelica Bruno-Schmitz, Archipenko moved to Berlin, where he opened an art school. He left Berlin for New York in 1923, becoming a United States citizen in 1929.
As a young artist in Paris, Archipenko began to adapt Cubist techniques to sculpture. Influenced by the Cubist notion of integrating the figure with surrounding space, he interchanged solids and voids so that protruding elements seemed to recede and internal features to advance. Reclining is a beautiful example of his personal approach to the human form as a platform for analyzing volume, space and geometric planes. Through his unique interpretation of the human form, Archipenko sought to challenge traditional concepts of sculpture. With their boldly simplified geometric forms, works such as Reclining helped redefine modern sculpture as an intellectual endeavor rather than simply a means for copying observed reality.