Alexander Archipenko

* 1887, Kiew 1964, New York

Biography
Museums and Collections
Literature

* 1887, Kiew, 1964, New York

Alexander Archipenko's artistic education began in 1902 when he started studying Painting and Sculpture at the Academy of Art in Kiev, the city of his birth. He was expelled for contravening the academic didactic of the academy and moved to Moscow, where he worked as an independent artist. In 1908 he moved to Paris, where he studied only briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts because his ideas clashed with the ethos of the college. In 1910 he became the first artist to transfer the cubist language of form onto sculpture. As a result he is recognized as the founder of abstract sculpture. From 1910 he regularly took part in exhibitions and after 1919 also exhibited in international shows in the USA. In 1923, Archipenko emigrated with his family to New York. Following teaching positions at various state run art schools and a short lectureship at the Washington State University, he founded the 'School of Creative Fine Arts' in 1937, in Chicago. In 1939 he returned to New York where he experimented, in particular, with new lighting technologies.

Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum

Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste

Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Wilhelm Hack Museum

Saarbrücken, Saarlandmuseum

Tel Aviv, Museum of Art

Würzburg, Kulturspeicher

Ausst. Kat. Saarbrücken: Alexander Archipenko, hrsg. von Ralph Melcher, Staatsgalerie Saarbrücken 18.10.2008-18.01.2009, Saarbrücken 2008 Barth, Anette: Alexander Archipenkos plastisches Oeuvre, Frankfurt 1997, Bd. 1: Seine Bedeutung für die Skulptur des 20. Jahrhunderts unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Lichtplastiken, Bd. 2: Werkverzeichnis Karshan, Donald H.: Archipenko. The Sculpture and Graphic Art, Tübingen 1974 Kern, Stephen: The Culture of Time and Space. 1880-1918, Köln 1957 Nagy, Ildikó: Archipenko, Budapest 1980 Read, Herbert: Geschichte der modernen Plastik, München/Zürich 1966 Schnell, Werner: Der Torso als Problem der modernen Kunst, Berlin 1980 Teige, Karel: Archipenko, Prag 1923 Wiese, Erich: Alexander Archipenko, Leipzig 1923