08.10.2008  Alexander Archipenko exhibition

• As home to the estate of the sculptor Alexander Archipenko (Kyiv 1887 – New York 1964), the Saarlandmuseum possesses a collection of works unique in Europe, comprising original plasters, bronzes and drawings from one of the foremost pioneers of 20th century sculpture. Resorting essentially to its own works, the Saarlandmuseum will be staging, from October 2008, the most extensive retrospective of the works of Alexander Archipenko of recent decades. The young Ukrainian settled in Paris in 1909. Like other progressive sculptors of his generation, Archipenko developed a strong interest in the sculpture of extra-European cultures, abundant examples of which were available for inspection at the Louvre and in the ethnological collections of the French capital. At the same time, his work reflects contact with the formal experiments of the Cubists that took place at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris. Starting in his early works with the mighty, block-like proportions of the represented bodies, his figures became more expressively elongated from about 1912 onwards. Inventing highly contrived dynamic motifs, the sculptor engaged throughout his life in a playful and diversified exploration of the inherent laws of the static. With unprecedented radicalism, Archipenko invested the sculptural form with deliberately shaped voids and penetrations, initiating a new kind of dialogue between mass and space. The works in Saarbrücken will be supplemented with international loans. Covering about 130 works from over five decades, the exhibition retraces the key lines of Archipenko’s development. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue and an extensive program of events. More information at Tel. +49 (0) 681.99 64-0 or online at www.saarlandmuseum.de