Cubist Still Life by Alexander Archipenko, 1887-1964

Alexander Archipenko, 1887-1964
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Cubist Still Life

Original lithograph in black ink. 1921. Signed in pencil. Also with the signature stamp. From the edition of only 12 signed impressions on japan paper (plus 48 on wove paper stamp signed only - Total edition of 60 impressions). Hand-printed at Wasmuth studio, Berlin 1920. Issued in de-luxe examples of the series: Dreizehn Steinzeichnungen - Thirteen Lithographs.
Ref: Karshan- Archipenko Graphic work no 11.

Note: Of the 12 sets of signed prints only 10 were issued. Signed impressions are exceptionally rare.

Extremely fine tonal impression. On pale cream japan paper. Generally excellent condition; very slightest signs of old mounting. Full margins. Image: 13 3/8 x 17 1/2ins (340x445mm)

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The study above is the most important Cubist composition on a ?still-life? theme in Archipenko?s graphic oeuvre. In the inter linking of the angles of the forms and in the interplay of the planes and surfaces it shows the full development of Archipenko?s contribution to the ideas of Synthetic Cubism, the second period of the Cubist aesthetic stemming from the great Section d?Or exhibitions in 1913 and later.

Cubist Still Life was drawn just after the end of the First War and was printed at the Wasmuth Studio in Berlin. The edition was issued in the series: Dreizehn Steinzeichnungen - Thirteen Lithographs but the impression above is a proof before that issue. Only signed with a signature stamp in the edition this proof impression is exceptional in being signed in pencil. It is the only pencil signed impression that we have ever seen.

Archipenko was born in Russia and first studied there, but he moved to Paris in 1908. He very quickly became involved with the circle around Picasso and Braque and with the founding of the Section d?Or group in 1912 - one of the very first sculptors to develop Cubist ideas in three dimensions. In 1913 he exhibited at the Sturm Gallery in Berlin which was a key event in spreading Cubist ideas outside Paris. After the end of the First War he moved from Paris to Berlin, and then in 1923 to the USA where he was to take-up citizenship in 1928. His work from the years immediately after the War is in many aspects at its most inspirational, the relative simplicity of the 1912/13 Cubist idiom being developed into a much more complex use of space and plane. The lithograph above shows this intellectual and aesthetic breadth at its very finest.