Chazen Museum opens ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ exhibition

The name Alexander Archipenko may not be as instantly recognizable as some of his fellow Cubists, “but he certainly ranks among the best of them,” says Russell Panczenko, director of the Chazen Museum of Art.

The museum will correct any lack of acquaintance with Archipenko this fall with a 60-piece exhibition of his innovative sculptures, primarily from the first half of the last century.

“Archipenko was one of the most notable of the early 20th century Cubist sculptors, but I think most people may be more familiar with painters, like Picasso and Braque,” says Panczenko. He adds that three-dimensional Cubist work is definitely worth serious investigation. “It’s an absolutely fascinating field. It’s so interesting to see how an artist like Archipenko took the new ideas of the period — such as Cubism — into the third dimension, how he worked out an interrelationship between two- and three-dimensional art. On the one hand, Archipenko, asking why painting had to be limited to two dimensions, began to build up surfaces of paintings with papier-maché. On the other hand, he aggressively introduced color into his sculptural pieces.”

Archipenko was almost 30 when he first encountered the Cubist movement. Painter Fernand Le’ger made the introduction when Archipenko moved to Paris from the Ukraine in 1908.

Cubism’s impact on him was swift and significant. Before World War I interrupted his career, Archipenko had emerged as one of Europe’s leading Cubist sculptors, establishing a particularly strong following in Germany. His “sculpto-paintings” put Cubism to work in innovative multimedia constructions. By 1914 he was capitalizing on the strengths of both three- and two-dimensional forms, creating surprising artistic effects that had a profound impact on many of his fellow artists.

After the war, Archipenko traveled the continent extensively, exhibiting in Geneva, Zurich, London, Brussels and Athens, in addition to Paris. After a sojourn in Berlin (the Nazis later confiscated a great deal of his work from German museums), he immigrated to the United States in 1923. For the next 30 years, he taught in art schools and universities across the country, including the short-lived New Bauhaus, founded in Chicago in 1937.

His internationalism fit well with his times, Panczenko says.

“Artists of the early 20th century often looked for universal ideas that would not be tied to a particular region or era,” he says. “Archipenko’s own life story is kind of a metaphor for that, personifying international modernism. He was born in the Ukraine, moved to Paris, then Germany and eventually settled in New York. So is he Ukrainian? French? German? American? Hard to say.”

This exhibition, however, has its own genesis in New York, at its Ukrainian Museum. “Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity” will have a limited national tour, and the show at the Chazen will be its only stop in the Midwest.

“It’s an extraordinary opportunity to see and study these pieces together,” Panczenko says. “The sculptures are scattered among a variety of museums and private collections all over the world. You might be able to see one or two pieces when visiting the right museum, but it’s quite certain that none of us will be able to see such a large and comprehensive grouping of Archipenko’s work again in our lifetime.”

The exhibition will open on Saturday, Aug. 26, and remain on view through Sunday, Nov. 26. A free public reception will launch the show at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15, at the museum, where the exhibition’s curator, Jaroslaw Leshko, professor emeritus of art at Smith College, will lecture on Archipenko at 5:30 p.m. in L140 of the Chazen. Other educational events will follow later in the semester. For details, visit http://www. chazen.wisc.edu or call 263-2246.