SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
The work of Alexandre Archipenko explores the possibilities of sculpture by combining materials, reliefs and hollow volumes. In 1912, he creates Medrano I, a painted assemblage incorporating glass, wood and metal, among other materials, as part of a series inspired by the Médrano circus. He also creates “sculpto-paintings”, reliefs generally made of plaster, sculpted and painted. In Femme marchant, dated to the same year, he explores the relationships between solid and void and experiments with a head in the negative, making absence a component of form. This investigation continues through distinct approaches: between 1924 and 1928, he develops “archipainting”, canvases set in motion by concealed motors; from 1947 onwards, he creates sculptures illuminated from within.
Born in Kiev in 1887, Alexandre Archipenko—also known as Alexander Archipenko and Oleksandr Porfyrovytch Arkhypenko—studies at the Kiev art school from 1902, moving from painting to sculpture, and then continues his training in Moscow. Settling in Paris in 1908, he joins the Cubist movement in 1910 and exhibits at the Salon des indépendants that year. His first solo exhibition is held in 1912 at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen. The following year, four of his works are presented at the Armory Show in New York. Between 1919 and 1921, he exhibits during travels to Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London, Brussels, Athens and other European cities. He then settles in Berlin, where he teaches sculpture until 1923.
In 1923, he emigrates to the United States and, over the years, opens several art schools, including in New York, Woodstock, Los Angeles and Chicago. From 1937 to 1939, he teaches as an associate instructor at the New Bauhaus School of Industrial Arts in Chicago.
This profile brings together identity references for Alexander Archipenko and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Kornfeld
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Pencil and coloured pencil on paper.
Stehende Figur, 1916
Bleistift u. Farbstift auf Papier.
Catalogue period : 2016-10-07
Published result : 6000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 2000–3000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Pencil drawing on cream wove paper
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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