UNCONVENTIONAL
FIGURES
NOVEMBER 2020
Exploration of the Pose This November, the featured work of Unconventional Figures explores the role of pose in figurative works. From ancient times onward, a subject’s pose has been used by artists to enrich the context and impact of a work. Artists of the twentieth century were no exception and utilized pose to harken back to classical motifs—imbuing their work with a natural sense of dynamism and emotion—or provide reference to their contemporaries and own avant-garde intentions. While countless poses exist, art historians identify several distinct categories. Perhaps the most foundational is contrapposto, in which a standing figure leans upon one leg, leaving the other either bent or taking a step forward, alluding to the movement the figure will make after the pose is complete. André Derain’s pastel Nu debout de face (1937–40) provides a perfect example of the contrapposto. Standing forward, one of the figure’s legs steps delicately in front of the other, a detail—expertly enhanced by Derain’s use of light and shadow—that identifies the figure as not a mannequin, but a dynamic human being. Another variation of contrapposto is found in Giacomo Manzù’s sculpture Striptease (1981–2004). Again, the figure poses upright, with one leg subtly positioned in front of the other, the toes of her left foot extending just beyond the base of the sculpture in a sensual evocation of the next step the figure intends to take. Manzù also references the iconography of the Venus Pudica, in which the goddess of love is depicted using her arms to cover her body. Historically representing both feminine modesty and sexuality, the pose is an apt reference for a figure model.
Another iteration of the goddess, the reclining Venus, popularized in works by Titian, Jean August Dominique Ingres, and Édouard Manet, is found in Femme nue allongée by Henri Laurens (1937). Despite the figure’s abstraction, its pose reveals Laurens’ interest in Greco-Roman subjects. In this work, he abstracts the traditional Venus into planes of yellow and simple black lines. Working fifty years later, Reuben Nakian similarly transformed the familiar iconographical poses of Venus to fit his artistic style. In Voyage to Crete (c. 1983), elements of the reclining Venus persist, but Nakian’s figure is far more sinuous and, detached from the background, she appears to glide across the composition. Additionally, his works Nymph and Dolphins (1982–85) and Nymph and Cupid (1982–85) feature engaged, curvilinear poses, reflecting the particular freedom and sensuality with which Nakian approached his re-interpretation of ancient mythologies. In the pastoral setting of Maurice Denis’ Allégorie de l’Ile-de-France (Sketch 1) (c. 1926), three figures, holding hands, appear to dance through the foreground of the painting. Their linked arms visually connect them to the pose often utilized when depicting the Three Graces, the mythological symbols of beauty, fertility, nature, and goodwill. Jean Hélion’s Femme accoudée (1946) includes a solitary figure, head in hands with a forlorn expression. Her posture, and the resulting emotional impact, is deeply reminiscent of the pose used in depictions of melancholia, a state of being recognized in the Renaissance as belonging to the fashionably moody and depressive disposition of artists. Barbara Hepworth’s drawing Crouching Figure (1948) features a female in a relaxed, serpentine pose as her arms reach over her legs and cause a slight twist in her torso. The serpentine figure is often related to Michelangelo’s sybils in the Sistine Chapel, who similarly extend their arms over their torsos and away
from their bodies. Like the Renaissance master, Hepworth had a profound interest in studying the human anatomy and its various movements, which then informed her work as a sculptor. A serpentine figure can also be found in the foreground of Hans Burkhardt’s untitled drawing from 1937. The figure crouches in the middle of a group, each of whom exhibit active poses that cause them to merge with one another. To examine each individual figure, the eye is forced to travel in a circular fashion, ultimately enhancing the dynamic nature of the various poses. Similarly dynamic, Graham Sutherland’s work on paper, Project for Coventry (1950), features three abstracted figures who reach out to one another with extended arms. Seemingly detached from their background, the figures’ dramatic poses give them an ethereal quality. A grouping of different poses that work together to convey movement is echoed in Jean Lurçat’s Les baigneuses (1933). Thinking, resting, changing, and walking away, together, the figures convey both the social and athletic energy often required for a day at the beach. Grouped together, these works—and the many poses depicted in them—exhibit the limitless potential of the human body to communicate. Whether drawing upon ancient motifs or contemporary references, these artists utilized pose as a critical element of their subject and composition.
GIACOMO MANZÙ Striptease, 1981–2004 Bronze with brown patina, Edition 3 of 8 40 x 16.25 x 8.5 in. (101.6 x 41.25 x 21.6 cm) Signed and numbered 3/8. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and recorded in the archives by Fondazione Manzù. PROVENANCE
Accademia Fine Art, Monte Carlo Rosenberg & Co., New York
ANDRÉ DERAIN Nu debout de face, c. 1937–40 Pastel on thin grey cardboard 18.9 x 12.1 in. (48 x 30.8 cm) Studio stamp lower right. This work is accompanied by a certificate from the André Derain Committee. PROVENANCE
Collection of the artist Maurice Rheims Collection, Paris Private collection (by descent) Rosenberg & Co., New York
Artworks from left to right: Jean Hélion, Femme accoudée Graham Sutherland, Project for Coventry Hans Burkhardt, Untitled Jean Lurçat, Les baigneuses Barbara Hepworth, Crouching Figure
JEAN HÉLION Femme accoudée, 1946 Ink, pencil, and gouache on paper 10.6 x 14.6 in. (27 x 37 cm) Signed with the initial, dated and situated Cagnes H 46 lower right. Inscribed verso Pour Bernard Balanci qui n’avait alors que 6 ans / Hélion 69. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Jacqueline Hélion. PROVENANCE
Acquired from the artist Collection of Bernard Balanci Private collection Galerie Strouk, Paris Private collection Rosenberg & Co., New York
GRAHAM SUTHERLAND Project for Coventry, 1950 Mixed media on paper 6.5 x 9.5 in. (16.5 x 24.1 cm) Signed Sutherland lower right. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Galleria Zonce & Zonca, Milan. PROVENANCE
Fiorella Urbinati Gallery, Los Angeles Galerie Le Point, Monaco Dutry Fine Arts, New York Galleria Open Art, Prato Rosenberg & Co., New York
HANS BURKHARDT Untitled, 1937 Charcoal on paper 17.4 x 23.9 in. (44 x 60.6 cm) Signed and dated H Burkhardt 37 lower center. PROVENANCE
Acquired from the artist Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles Rosenberg & Co., New York
Artworks from left to right: Jean Lurçat, Les baigneuses; Barbara Hepworth, Crouching Figure; Maurice Denis, Allégorie de l’Ile-de-France (Sketch 1); Henri Laurens, Femme nue allongée
JEAN LURÇAT Les baigneuses, 1933 Gouache on paper 18.11 x 14.2 in. (46 x 36 cm) Signed and dedicated Pour Leslie Goldberg trés amicalment J. Lurçat lower right. This authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Gérard Denizeau. LITERATURE
Denizeau, Gérard and Simone Lurçat, L’Oeuvre Peint de Jean Lurçat: Catalogue raisonné 1910–1965 (Lausanne: Sylvio Acatos, 1998), p. 397, no.1933.23. PROVENANCE
Collection of Maitre Drouot Loudmer, France Private collection Rosenberg & Co., New York
BARBARA HEPWORTH Crouching Figure, 1948 India ink and chalk on paper 9.25 x 13.25 in. (23.5 x 33.6 cm) Signed and dated Barbara Hepworth 1948 upper right. LITERATURE
Wilkinson, Alan, ed. The Drawings of Barbara Hepworth (London: Lund Humphries, 2015), no. 93 (ill.), p.31, 100. EXHIBITIONS
Arts Council Exhibition, London, 1953 Venice Biennale, British Pavilion, 1950 PROVENANCE
Private collection New Art Centre, Salisbury Rosenberg & Co., New York
MAURICE DENIS Allégorie de l’Ile-de-France (Sketch 1), c. 1926 Oil on canvas 12.4 x 16.14 in. (31.5 x 41 cm) This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by Claire Denis and Fabienne Stahl, listed as no.926.0053. This work is recorded as Sketch 1, RefMod11619. PROVENANCE
Private collection, Switzerland Private collection Rosenberg & Co., New York
HENRI LAURENS Femme nue allongée, 1937 Gouache and graphite on cardboard 4.5 x 12 in. (11.4 x 30.5 cm) Signed with the artist’s monogram lower left. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Anisabelle Berès-Montanari. PROVENANCE
Collection of Curt Valentin, New York Galerie Berggruen & Co., Paris Collection of Samuel and Luella Malson, New York Galerie Berès, Paris Rosenberg & Co., New York
Artworks from left to right: Reuben Nakian, Nymph and Cupid; Nymph and Dolphins; Voyage to Crete
REUBEN NAKIAN Nymph and Cupid, 1982–85 Black litho crayon with blue and green wash on paper 29.75 x 33.1 in. (75.6 x 84.1 cm) Signed NAKIAN lower right.
PROVENANCE
Atelier Nakien, LLC, Stamford Rosenberg & Co., New York
REUBEN NAKIAN Nymph and Dolphins, 1982–85 Black litho crayon and color wash on paper 29.75 x 40.75 in. (75.6 x 103.5 cm) Signed NAKIAN lower left
PROVENANCE
Atelier Nakien, LLC, Stamford Rosenberg & Co., New York
REUBEN NAKIAN Voyage to Crete, c. 1983 Black litho crayon with blue and green wash on paper 29.75 x 36.5 in. (75.6 x 92.7 cm) Signed NAKIAN center right.
PROVENANCE
Atelier Nakien, LLC, Stamford Rosenberg & Co., New York
BALTASAR LOBO Femme à la chevelure tressée, 1990 Bronze, Edition 1/8 25.75 x 17 x 10.5 in. (66 x 43.2 x 26.75 cm) Signed and numbered Lobo 1/8. Stamped with Susse Frère foundry mark.
PROVENANCE
Galerie Vallois, Paris Private collection, New York Rosenberg & Co., New York