Lot 27: Joel Shapiro b. 1941 Untitled (JS 936a&b) each part signed on the underside bronze, in two parts lar...

Estimated Price: Log in or create account to view price data

Description: Joel Shapiro b. 1941 Untitled (JS 936a&b) each part signed on the underside bronze, in two parts large element: 35 by 50 1/2 by 22in. 88.9 by 128.3 by 55.9cm. small element: 30 by 41 by 25in. 76.2 by 104.1 by 63.5cm. Executed in 1990-1991, this work is number two from an edition of four. Provenance Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Private Collection, Geneva Exhibited Los Angeles, Asher/Faure, Joel Shapiro, April - May 1991 Tokyo, Takashimaya; Osaka, Takashimaya; Kyoto, Takashimaya; Yokohama, Takashimaya, Manhattan Breeze - Five Contemporary Artists, April - June 1993 Cologne, Galerie Karsten Greve, Joel Shapiro: Skulpturen/Arbeiten auf Papier, September 1993 - January 1994 Mexico City, Ace Gallery, Inaugural Exhibition Ace Gallery Mexico, September - November 1997 Wiltshire, Salisbury, East Winterslow, Roche Court, New Art Centre Sculpture Park & Gallery, Joel Shapiro Sculpture, June - August 1999 Literature Hendel Teicher, Joel Shapiro: Sculpture and Drawings, New York, 1998, p. 138, no. 184 & 185 illustrated in color This powerful sculpture is exceptional in its complex relationship of forms. Typical of Shapiro's uncanny ability to convey the human body using the simplest of means, its two masses appear to be crouching figures. As they fold into themselves with seemingly athletic precision, they remain joined by the suggestion of surrounding space, held in a tense balance of frozen movement. Shapiro's classical approach to sculpture shares the vitality as Henry Moore's multi-part compositions which places equal emphasis on solid forms and spatial voids. They further address the coming together and breaking apart of forms - a chief concern of Shapiro's. Shapiro uses simple abstract forms to create sculptures such as the present work, which is "figurative without having to get involved with literally describing human movement, but rather it describes one's idea of movement. It has to function in terms of one's memory of the body." (the artist quoted in Joel Shapiro,