Sep 22, 2016 - Sale 2422

Sale 2422 - Lot 451

Price Realized: $ 2,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
ALEXANDER ARCHIPENKO
Two Figures.

Etching, 1962. 120x151 mm; 4 1/2x5 7/8 inches, full margins. Signed in ink, lower right, and numbered 11/60 in pencil, lower left. Printed by Leblanc, Paris. Published by Galerie Schwarz, Milan. From International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving. A very good impression of this extremely scarce etching.

We have found only one other impression at auction in the past 30 years.

According to Karshan, "Two Figures is the smallest print in Archipenko's œuvre and the only one using the etching technique (in contrast to drypoint). It is also the most abbreviated image in his graphic output; the two figures being reduced to only five lines and two punctuations for heads. The uneven, ragged width of the etched line increases the tension of the composition's buoyant calligraphy, with its implied mass." Karshan 41.