Jacques LipchitzMeditation 1931, cast 1960s

T03510 Meditation 1931

Plaster 7 3/4 × 7 × 5 3/4 (197 × 178 × 146)
Inscribed ‘14.’ in blue paint, twice, under the base of the arms
Presented by the Lipchitz Foundation 1982
Lit: Arnason 1969, repr.63 (bronze)

The terracotta of this sculpture, which has in addition a thin base, is in the collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art (Arizona 1982, 54, repr.).

Lipchitz made a number of similarly abbreviated sculptures of heads and hands in the early 1930s, which develop his interest in the idea of a hollow space within the body. This particular pose goes back to the ‘Man Leaning on his Elbows’, 1925 (Arnason 1969, repr.21), which is itself related to the ‘transparent’ sculptures of that year… (read more)