Cubism in Sculpture

Although Cubism is considered to be a style in painting, we can see its principles more clearly defined in sculpture, as we look at the collision of angles and surfaces in a 3D medium

Jacques Lipchitz (1891 - 1973) a Jewish Lithuanian engineer who moved to Paris to study art in 1909, is considered to be the first cubist sculptor because he adopted its principles and began to work with them. Even though he produced more traditional pieces, he enthusiastically tried to incorporate the new way of looking at things that Picasso and Braque were developing into his work. In applying these principles to sculpture, the artist must work at dissecting a figure into geometric shapes and reorganizing the parts by counterbalancing the opposing planes and shapes. He created a piece called Sailor and Guitar in 1914 which clearly demonstrates this application of the principles of cubism to sculpture




In 1916 the 1st exhibition of sculpture where "cubist sculpture" was emphasized, was organized by Raymond Duchamp Villon at Galerie de l'Art Ancien et Contemporain. Many sculptors who attended from other parts of Europe were greatly influenced by this exhibition. Sculpture began move from being representational to using the medium to evoke emotions.

Lipchitz became friends with Le Corbusier, and in his later works you can see a strong architectural aspect developing.

This is the sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz that we found in our Museum trip

It is entitled Man with Guitar and was done in 1920. It is a bronze edition of 7 made at that time.