Alexander Archipenko
Still Life on Tablecirca 1918

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 1

Graphite drawing on cream paper, Cubist still life with fragmented geometric forms suggesting a table, bowl, plate, and draped cloth, with harlequin diamond patterns in the lower corners

Artist or Maker: Alexander Archipenko
Title: Still Life on Table
Place Made: France, Germany, and the United States
Date Made: circa 1918
Medium: Charcoal and graphite
Dimensions: Image: 12 1/4 × 16 5/8 in. (31.12 × 42.23 cm) Sheet: 12 1/4 × 19 1/16 in. (31.12 × 48.42 cm) Mat: 18 × 24 in. (45.72 × 60.96 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Austin and Irene Young Trust
Accession Number: AC1994.87.1
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Ukrainian-born sculptor Alexander Archipenko studied art in Kyiv, then in 1908 moved to Paris, where he became associated with the avant-garde scene and absorbed Cubist principles. Drawing was a key practice for Archipenko, allowing him to experiment with the faceting of forms and space, and effectively bridging the gap between painting and sculpture. Here, he takes up the time-honored still-life genre and disrupts its perspectival conventions. The tabletop is not only impossibly askew but apparently broken into pieces; the outlines of the teacup, plate, and bowl are incomplete; shadows scatter every which way. This drawing may have been a study for a lithograph, printed in 1921, in which the composition is less radical.

Britt Salvesen

2024
Selected Bibliography: Davis, Bruce. Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stevens, Matthew, ed. Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York : Distributed by Hudson Hills Press, 1997.
Copyright: © The Archipenko Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York, NY

Alexander Archipenko
Still Life on Tablecirca 1918

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 1

Artist or Maker: Alexander Archipenko
Title: Still Life on Table
Place Made: France, Germany, and the United States
Date Made: circa 1918
Medium: Charcoal and graphite
Dimensions: Image: 12 1/4 × 16 5/8 in. (31.12 × 42.23 cm) Sheet: 12 1/4 × 19 1/16 in. (31.12 × 48.42 cm) Mat: 18 × 24 in. (45.72 × 60.96 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Austin and Irene Young Trust
Accession Number: AC1994.87.1
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Ukrainian-born sculptor Alexander Archipenko studied art in Kyiv, then in 1908 moved to Paris, where he became associated with the avant-garde scene and absorbed Cubist principles. Drawing was a key practice for Archipenko, allowing him to experiment with the faceting of forms and space, and effectively bridging the gap between painting and sculpture. Here, he takes up the time-honored still-life genre and disrupts its perspectival conventions. The tabletop is not only impossibly askew but apparently broken into pieces; the outlines of the teacup, plate, and bowl are incomplete; shadows scatter every which way. This drawing may have been a study for a lithograph, printed in 1921, in which the composition is less radical.

Britt Salvesen

2024
Selected Bibliography: Davis, Bruce. Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stevens, Matthew, ed. Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York : Distributed by Hudson Hills Press, 1997.