Alexander Archipenko
Encyclopedia
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr) (May 30, 1887February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian
avant-garde
artist
, sculptor
, and graphic artist
.
, in present-day Ukraine
(at the time a part of the Russian Empire
) to Porfiry Antonowych Archipenko and Poroskowia Vassylivna Machowa Archipenko; he was the younger brother of Eugene Archipenko.
From 1902-1905, he attended the Kiev Art School (KKHU), after which he continued his education in the arts as the student of S. Svyatoslavsky in 1906 (also in Kiev). In the same year he had an exhibition in Kiev, together with Alexander Bogomazov
. That same year, Archipenko moved to Moscow
, where he had a chance to exhibit his work in some group shows.
He moved to Paris
in 1908 and was a resident in the artist's Colony La Ruche, among émigré
Russian artists: Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, Sonia Delaunay-Terk
, and Nathan Altman
.
After 1910 Alexander Archipenko had exhibitions at Salon des Independants
, Salon d'Automne
together with Aleksandra Ekster
, Kazimir Malevich
, Vadym Meller
, Sonia Delaunay (Terk)
alongside Pablo Picasso
, Georges Braque
, and Andre Derain
.
In 1912 Archipenko had his first personal exhibition at the Museum Folkwang
in Hagen
. From 1912 to 1914 Archipenko was teaching at his own Art School in Paris.
Four of Archipenko's sculptures, including Family Life, and five of his drawings appeared in the controversial Armory Show
in 1913 in New York City
. These works were caricatured in the New York World
.
Archipenko moved to Nice
in 1914. In 1920 he participated in Twelfth Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte di Venezia in Italy
and started his own Art school in Berlin
the following year. In 1922 Archipenko participated in the First Russian Art Exhibition in the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin together with Aleksandra Ekster, Kazimir Malevich
, Solomon Nikritin
, El Lissitzky
and others.
In 1923 he emigrated to U.S., becoming an American citizen in 1929. Also in 1923, Archipenko participated in an exhibition of Russian Paintings and Sculpture. In 1933 he exhibited at the Ukrainian pavilion in Chicago
as part of the Century of Progress
World's Fair. Alexander Archipenko contributed the most to the success of the Ukrainian pavilion. His works occupied one room and were valued at $25,000 dollars.
In 1936 Archipenko participated in an exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art in New York as well as numerous exhibitions in Europe
and other places in the U.S. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1962.
Alexander Archipenko died on February 25, 1964, in New York City. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.
movement, Archipenko departed from the neo-classical sculpture of his time and used negative space
to create a new way of looking at the human figure, showing a number of views of the subject simultaneously. He is known for introducing sculptural voids, and for his inventive mixing of genres throughout his career: devising 'sculpto-paintings', and later experimenting with materials such as clear acrylic and terra cotta
.
(Andover, Massachusetts), the Art Institute of Chicago
, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
(Northwestern University, Illinois), Brigham Young University Museum of Art (Utah), Chi-Mei Museum (Taiwan),The Denver Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
, the Guggenheim Museum
(New York City), the Hermitage Museum
, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
(Washington D.C.), the Honolulu Academy of Arts
, Indiana University Art Museum
(Bloomington), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
, the Maier Museum of Art (Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Virginia), the Milwaukee Art Museum
, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
(Alabama), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
, the Museum of Modern Art
(New York City), the Nasher Sculpture Center
(Dallas, Texas), the National Gallery of Art
(Washington D.C.), the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, the North Carolina Museum of Art
, the Norton Simon Museum
(Pasadena, California), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
(Venice), the Phillips Collection
(Washington D.C.), the Portland Museum of Art
(Maine), the San Antonio Art League Museum (Texas), the San Diego Museum of Art
(California), the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
(Lincoln, Nebraska), the Smithsonian American Art Museum
(Washington D.C.), Städel Museum (Frankfurt), the Tate Gallery
, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
, Von der Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal, Germany), Walker Art Center
(Minnesota) and The Cleveland Cultural Gardens (Ukrainian Garden) in Rockefeller Park (Ohio), Fundación D.O.P.
(Caracas).
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, and graphic artist
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
.
Biography
Alexander Archipenko was born in KievKiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, in present-day Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(at the time a part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
) to Porfiry Antonowych Archipenko and Poroskowia Vassylivna Machowa Archipenko; he was the younger brother of Eugene Archipenko.
From 1902-1905, he attended the Kiev Art School (KKHU), after which he continued his education in the arts as the student of S. Svyatoslavsky in 1906 (also in Kiev). In the same year he had an exhibition in Kiev, together with Alexander Bogomazov
Alexander Bogomazov
Alexander or Oleksandr Bogomazov was Ukrainian painter, known artist and modern art theoretician of Russian Avant-garde . In 1914 Alexander wrote his treatise The Art of Painting and the Elements...
. That same year, Archipenko moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where he had a chance to exhibit his work in some group shows.
He moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1908 and was a resident in the artist's Colony La Ruche, among émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
Russian artists: Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, Sonia Delaunay-Terk
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay was a Jewish-French artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design...
, and Nathan Altman
Nathan Altman
Nathan Isaevich Altman was a Jewish, Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, Cubist painter, stage designer and book illustrator who was born, grew up and began his art studies in Ukraine, Russian Empire.-Early life:He was born in Vinnytsia, Russian Empire to a family of Russian...
.
After 1910 Alexander Archipenko had exhibitions at Salon des Independants
Société des Artistes Indépendants
—The Société des Artistes Indépendants formed in Paris in summer 1884 choosing the device "No jury nor awards" . Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were among its founders...
, Salon d'Automne
Salon d'Automne
In 1903, the first Salon d'Automne was organized by Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Angele Delasalle and Albert Marquet as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon...
together with Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...
, Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
, Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist and Constructivist artist, theatrical designer, book illustrator, and architect...
, Sonia Delaunay (Terk)
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay was a Jewish-French artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design...
alongside Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, and Andre Derain
André Derain
André Derain was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.-Early years:...
.
In 1912 Archipenko had his first personal exhibition at the Museum Folkwang
Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum
The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum is an art museum in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The center of the museum is a building whose interior was designed by Henry van de Velde to house Karl Ernst Osthaus' art collection, open to the public as the Folkwang Museum...
in Hagen
Hagen
Hagen is the 39th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr...
. From 1912 to 1914 Archipenko was teaching at his own Art School in Paris.
Four of Archipenko's sculptures, including Family Life, and five of his drawings appeared in the controversial Armory Show
Armory Show
Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...
in 1913 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. These works were caricatured in the New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
.
Archipenko moved to Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
in 1914. In 1920 he participated in Twelfth Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte di Venezia in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and started his own Art school in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
the following year. In 1922 Archipenko participated in the First Russian Art Exhibition in the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin together with Aleksandra Ekster, Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
, Solomon Nikritin
Solomon Nikritin
Solomon Nikritin was a Ukrainian painter, avant-garde artist , graphic artist, designer, and author.- Biography :Solomon Nikritin was born in Chernihiv, Ukraine.In 1909–1914 he attended Kiev Art School ....
, El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky
, better known as El Lissitzky , was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works...
and others.
In 1923 he emigrated to U.S., becoming an American citizen in 1929. Also in 1923, Archipenko participated in an exhibition of Russian Paintings and Sculpture. In 1933 he exhibited at the Ukrainian pavilion in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
as part of the Century of Progress
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
World's Fair. Alexander Archipenko contributed the most to the success of the Ukrainian pavilion. His works occupied one room and were valued at $25,000 dollars.
In 1936 Archipenko participated in an exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art in New York as well as numerous exhibitions in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and other places in the U.S. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1962.
Alexander Archipenko died on February 25, 1964, in New York City. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Contribution to art
Associated with the cubistCubist sculpture
Cubist sculpture is a style developed in parallel with cubist painting, centered in Paris, beginning around 1909 and evolving through the early 1920s.The style is most closely associated with the formal experiments of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso...
movement, Archipenko departed from the neo-classical sculpture of his time and used negative space
Negative space
Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real"...
to create a new way of looking at the human figure, showing a number of views of the subject simultaneously. He is known for introducing sculptural voids, and for his inventive mixing of genres throughout his career: devising 'sculpto-paintings', and later experimenting with materials such as clear acrylic and terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
.
Public collections
Among the public collections holding works by Alexander Archipenko are: The Addison Gallery of American ArtAddison Gallery of American Art
The Addison Gallery of American Art, as a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art...
(Andover, Massachusetts), the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Block Museum was established in 1980 by Chicago art collectors Mary and Leigh B. Block...
(Northwestern University, Illinois), Brigham Young University Museum of Art (Utah), Chi-Mei Museum (Taiwan),The Denver Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, comprising the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco and one of the largest art museums in California.-External...
, the Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
(New York City), the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
(Washington D.C.), the Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu Academy of Arts
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is an art museum in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. Since its founding in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke and opening April 8, 1927, its collections have grown to over 40,000 works of art.-Description:...
, Indiana University Art Museum
Indiana University Art Museum
The Indiana University Art Museum is located on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Established in 1941, the museum currently holds several internationally acclaimed collections, ranging from ancient gold jewelry and African masks to paintings by Claude Monet...
(Bloomington), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, the Maier Museum of Art (Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Virginia), the Milwaukee Art Museum
Milwaukee Art Museum
The Milwaukee Art Museum is located on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Beginning around 1872, multiple organizations were founded in order to bring an art gallery to Milwaukee, as the city was still a growing port town with little or no facilities to hold major art exhibitions...
, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. For seventy years, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts has been a showcase for the visual arts in Central Alabama...
(Alabama), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
(New York City), the Nasher Sculpture Center
Nasher Sculpture Center
Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas that houses a collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the heart of the Dallas Arts District...
(Dallas, Texas), the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
(Washington D.C.), the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, the North Carolina Museum of Art
North Carolina Museum of Art
The North Carolina Museum of Art is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring paintings and sculpture representing 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present. The museum features more than 40 galleries as well as more than a dozen works of art in its Museum Park...
, the Norton Simon Museum
Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an Art Museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known by the names: the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum.-Overview:...
(Pasadena, California), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation....
(Venice), the Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
(Washington D.C.), the Portland Museum of Art
Portland Museum of Art
The Portland Museum of Art is an art museum in Portland, Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882, it is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District, and is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S...
(Maine), the San Antonio Art League Museum (Texas), the San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San...
(California), the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
The Sheldon Museum of Art is located at 12 & R Streets in Lincoln, Nebraska, on the city campus of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The Sheldon houses both the Sheldon Art Association collection , and the University of Nebraska collection, initiated in 1929. Together they comprise more than...
(Lincoln, Nebraska), the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
(Washington D.C.), Städel Museum (Frankfurt), the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
, Von der Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal, Germany), Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
(Minnesota) and The Cleveland Cultural Gardens (Ukrainian Garden) in Rockefeller Park (Ohio), Fundación D.O.P.
DOP Foundation
The D.O.P. Foundation is a non-profit institution with spaces and documentary archives headquartered in Paris , Madrid , Miami and Caracas that operates as an educational and lending resource of modern and contemporary art and is dedicated to build a collection that reflects the scope and...
(Caracas).