Jacques Lipchitz

Sculpture

1916

© The estate of Jacques Lipchitz, courtesy, Marlborough Gallery, New York

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Not on display

Artist: Jacques Lipchitz 1891–1973
Medium: Plaster
Dimensions: Object: 1169 x 368 x 342 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Lipchitz Foundation 1982
Reference: T03492

Display caption

The subject of this sculpture is a woman, seated with her legs crossed. The tall block is part of the head, and was added, according to the artist, 'to give value to the head, the back of the head.' This plaster was cast from a stone carving, which the artist said he carved himself rather than asking his assistant to copy from the model. There is a network of pencil crosses over the shellac surface, which mark 'points' for another carved copy to be made.

Gallery label, April 2012

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Catalogue entry

T03492 Sculpture 1916

Plaster, coated with shellac 46 × 14 1/2 × 13 1/2 (1169 × 368 × 342)
Not inscribed
Presented by the Lipchitz Foundation, 1982
Lit: Stott 1975, pp.129–31, 237–8 (transcript of tape), 243–4, 257 (27) and repr.23 (stone)

The stone carving of this sculpture, formerly in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, is in a private collection, Dallas.

The sculpture was discussed at length by the artist on 14 August 1969 with Deborah Stott. He confirmed that he had started the carving himself, rather than asking his assistant to copy the model. The subject is a woman, seated with her legs crossed, and the tall block is a part of the head - ‘to give value to the head, the back of the head, you know’ (op.cit.p.238) - and not a raised arm.

This plaster was cast from the stone carving and has the same detailed surface pattern. There is a network of pencil crosses over the shellac surface, which mark ‘points’ for another carved copy to be made. This copy is not known, but may be connected with the three marble enlargements made in the 1960s from sculptures of 1919–21 and which are now on loan to the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, from the Lipchitz Foundation.

The shape that makes the right-hand shoulder and knee of this figure is repeated from the earlier ‘Sculpture 1916’ (T03397).

[For T03397 and T03479 to T03534 the foundry inscriptions, and reproductions of casts in other materials in the books listed below, are recorded. Abbreviations used:

Arnason 1969 H.H. Arnason, Jacques Lipchitz: Sketches in Bronze, 1969

Lipchitz 1972 Jacques Lipchitz, My Life in Sculpture, 1972

Stott 1975 Deborah A. Stott, Jacques Lipchitz and Cubism, 1975 (reprinted 1978)

Otterlo 1977 A.M. Hammacher, Lipchitz in Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, 1977

Centre Pompidou 1978 Nicole Barbier, Lipchitz: oeuvres de Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973) dans les collections du Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1978

Arizona 1982 Jacques Lipchitz. Sketches and Models in the collection of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona. Introduction and catalogue by Peter Bermingham, 1982]

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986