MUST RUN 11/9

MARLBOROUGH ‘JACQUES LIPCHITZ: EARLY WORKS, RELIEFS AND WORKS ON PAPER’

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NEW YORK CITY — “Jacques Lipchitz: Early Works, Reliefs and Works on Paper” will open at Marlborough Gallery, 40 West 57th Street, on November 1 and continue through December 8. It will include 54 sculptures and 68 drawings, including a group of early sculptures from 1910 to 1916. The heart of the exhibition — 20 stone, polychrome and bronze reliefs from 1918 to 1923 and a group of works from 1925 to 1933 — culminate with his powerful anti-fascist statement, “David and Goliath” of 1933. Within these boundaries it charts the course of one of the most fertile and innovative sculptors of the Twentieth Century.

This will be the first exhibition of Lipchitz’s work at Marlborough in almost four years and is noteworthy in that it concentrates on the increasingly recognized stone and bronze bas reliefs, many never before exhibited by Marlborough and some never before exhibited anywhere.

Among the notable early works in the exhibition are “Horsewoman with Fan” of 1913, “Spanish Servant Girl” of 1915, and “Mother and Children,” 1914–15. Paired with many of these important sculptures are associated drawings that reveal the artist’s formal process and the conceptual development of the finished work. The difficult process from conception to execution is often laid bare with a freshness and immediacy in the works on paper. These drawings became increasingly important in his work.

In fact, it was in 1918 that as Lipchitz notes, “I was not equipped to continue with may free-standing sculpture, so I made drawings and gouaches, preparatory sketches for a series of bas reliefs. In these, perhaps because I was thinking them out so completely with colored drawings, I began to experiment with polychrome.”

Born in Lithuania in 1891, Lipchitz arrived in Paris in 1909 where he quickly established himself as an artist whose impact contributed to the revolution of Twentieth Century art. He began exhibiting in Paris in 1912 and his first solo show took place at the Galerie de l’effort moderne (Leonce Rosenberg) in 1920. Lipchitz emigrated from France at the time of the first German invasion, arriving in the United States in 1941. Shortly after, Lipchitz began exhibiting at the Buccholz Gallery, New York, and continued to exhibit in galleries and museums until his death in 1973.

Lipchitz’s work is included in the collections of more than 100 of the most important museums throughout the world, including Centre National d’Art et de Culture George Pompidou, Paris; Centro Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Tate Gallery, London; and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv.

The gallery is at 40 West 57th Street. For information, www.marlboroughgallery.com or 212-541-4900.