Special display - 20th century sculpture from the Tate collection
2nd Jul 2012 - 31st Mar 2013
Henri Laurens\' Head of a Young Girl, and Jacques Lipchitz\'s Seated Man with Clarinet I are on display in the Sainsbury Centre Living Area gallery as part of an ongoing collaboration with Tate.
This exciting programme of loans from the Tate collections sees 20th century sculptures displayed alongside the Sainsbury Collection as part of a rolling programme during 2012-14.
Henri Laurens, Head of a Young Girl, 1920
French sculptor Henri Laurens was born in Paris in 1885. In his early years Laurens was apprenticed to an ornamental sculptor where he learnt the practice of direct stone carving. Between 1915 and 1919, influenced by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and working in the spirit of Cubism, Laurens produced a series of constructed polychrome sculptures and papiers coll�s (paper collages). In 1919 he moved away from these works turning towards three-dimensional and relief sculptures in terracotta and stone.
Head of Young Girl resembles Laurens� earlier Cubist work, whilst also heralding the more classically styled sculptures he would produce during the 1920s and �30s. The depiction of the woman�s face is defined with Cubist angularity whilst the gentle curves outlining her shoulders and waves in her hair evoke Classicism. These changes emerging in Laurens� sculpture reflect the rappel � l�ordre (return to order) amongst artists working in Paris during this period, often viewed as a desire for order and stability in the aftermath of the First World War. Laurens� use of stone references classical sculpture and so suggests permanence and timelessness. Much of Laurens� subject matter was devoted to the female figure.
The simple lines, elongated features and stylistic qualities displayed in Laurens� Head of Young Girl echo the work of his friend Modigliani, whose work was greatly admired and collected by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury. Both Modigliani and Laurens were influenced by sculptural forms from Africa and Asia. The Sainsburys� acquisitions were often guided by an instinctive response to the sculptural form � particularly that of the human figure. Consequently, displaying Lauren�s Head of a Young Girl alongside the Sainsburys� collection of world art places the work within the context from which its maker drew inspiration.
Jacques Lipchitz, Seated Man with Clarinet I, 1920
Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz was born in Druskininkai, Lithuania in 1891 and subsequently lived and worked in France and America. Moving to Paris in 1909, he studied at the �cole des Beaux-Arts, the Academy Julian and the Academie Colarossi. The vibrant artistic communities of Montmartre and Montparnasse were to have a major impact on the development of Lipchitz�s work, in particular his advent into Cubism.
Prior to making this sculpture, Lipchitz had met with a number of prominent artists including Cha�m Soutine and Amedeo Modigliani, both of whose works were collected by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury. Having met with Pablo Picasso in 1913, the experience of which radically altered his work, Lipchitz executed his first purely Cubist sculptures in 1915-16. Between 1916 and 1920 he worked closely with Juan Gris exploring the concept of geometric abstraction. Both artists were to formulate their mature styles in the 1920s following this creative exchange.
Seated Man with Clarinet I is characteristically Cubist. Solid, block-like forms describe the figure of the clarinet player which presents complex multiple viewpoints. The work�s abstract composition of shapes, alongside its musical subject matter, references experimental Cubist painting of this period.
Lipchitz�s first solo exhibition took place in Paris in 1920, the year that this sculpture was produced. It was at this point that the significance of his work became more widely recognised. Throughout his life Lipchitz, like Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, was an avid collector of works from many different cultures. Seated Man with Clarinet I is poignantly positioned amongst the Sainsburys� substantial collection of world art.
Photo: Nigel Young, Foster + Partner
