Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

own that figures importantly in the whole design. Enclosed spaces

have always existed in figurative sculpture—for example, the space

between the arm and the body when the hand rests on the hip (FIG.

21-13). But here the space penetrates the figure’s continuous mass

and is a defined form equal in importance to the mass of the bronze.

It is not simply the negative counterpart to the volume. Archipenko’s

figure shows the same fluid intersecting planes seen in Cubist paint-

ing, and the relation of the planes to each other is similarly complex.

Thus, in both painting and sculpture, the Cubists broke through tra-

ditional limits and transformed the medium.

JULIO GONZÁLEZ A friend of Picasso,Julio González

(1876–1942) shared his interest in the artistic possibilities of new

materials and new methods borrowed from both industrial technol-

ogy and traditional metalworking. Born into a family of metalwork-

ers in Barcelona, González helped Picasso construct a number of

welded sculptures. This contact with Picasso in turn allowed González

to refine his own sculptural vocabulary. Using prefabricated bars,

sheets, or rods of welded or wrought iron and bronze, González cre-

ated dynamic sculptures with both linear elements and volumetric

forms. A comparison between his Woman Combing Her Hair (FIG.

35-21) and Archipenko’s version of the same subject (FIG. 35-20) is

instructive. Archipenko’s figure still incorporates the basic shapes of

a woman’s body. González reduced his figure to an interplay of

curves, lines, and planes—virtually a complete abstraction without

any vestiges of traditional representational art. Although González’s

sculpture received limited exposure during his lifetime, his work had

a great impact on later abstract artists working in welded metal.

FERNAND LÉGER AND PURISM Le Corbusier is today

best known as one of the most important modernist architects (FIG.

35-75), but he was also a painter. In 1918 he founded a movement

called Purism,which opposed Synthetic Cubism on the grounds that

it was becoming merely an esoteric, decorative art out of touch with

Europe, 1900 to 1920 925

35-20Aleksandr Archipenko,Woman Combing Her Hair,1915.

Bronze, 1 13 – 4  3 –^14  31 – 8 . Museum of Modern Art, New York

(acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest).

In this statuette Archipenko introduced, in place of the head, a void with

a shape of its own that figures importantly in the whole design. The void

is not simply the negative counterpart of the volume.

35-21Julio González,Woman Combing Her Hair,1936. Iron,

4  4  1  11 – 21  2 ^5 – 8 . Museum of Modern Art, New York (Mrs. Simon

Guggenheim Fund).

Using prefabricated metal pieces, González reduced his figure to an

interplay of curves, lines, and planes—virtually a complete abstraction

without any vestiges of traditional representational art.

1 in.

1 ft.