Woman with a Fan

Mediums: wood, sheet metal, glass, linen.
Location: The Museum of Fine Arts, Tel Aviv (Israel).

This is the earliest surviving example of reformist “sculptural paintings” by Arkhipenko, who stated that his “painting and sculpture are the relationship of a shape and colours, which are combined or contrasted visually and spiritually”. For this collage, he also used ready-made items – a bottle, a wooden shelf and a metal funnel. The paints create contrast and additional volumes dissolving the materiality of objects in abstract geometric forms. Using a bright palette, Arkhipenko, according to Juan Gris, “challenged the traditional understanding of sculpture and the monochromatic nature of cubism, which was a significant innovation in sculpture”. Arkhipenko also expanded the methods of building a collage. The work was made in bronze in 1958.