1913

Figure in Movement

American (born Ukraine), 1887 - 1964

Created in Paris just a year after Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque made their first Cubist collages, Archipenko's collages were conceived as studies for sculpture. Highly simplified in form, Figure in Movement is composed of only six pieces of paper with straight and rounded profiles, each shaded with pastel to give them a sense of volume. Archipenko connected the cutout shapes by drawing crossing arcs and ruled lines that trace and extend their boundaries. While modest in size, the collage seems large, for the figure's forceful movements and countermovements fill the sheet from top to bottom and side to side.