photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Untitled is a photographic by Alexander Archipenko, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This photo shows a woman in a long dress with a high collar and a headscarf. Her body is broken into sharp, flat shapes—like geometric blocks—with bold black lines separating them. The dress has a stiff, almost stiffened look, and her hands rest at her sides. The artist used a mix of light and dark to define edges, making the shapes pop. The headscarf’s texture is the only soft part in the whole image. Look up chiaroscuro to see how light and shadow create drama in art.
A photograph is mounted on a green card as part of a collection bequeathed by William Kineton Parkes in 1938. Kineton Parkes, a novelist, art historian, and librarian known for his work on sculpture, gathered these images in the 1920s by sending questionnaires to sculptors, including this one. The photograph is among many sent in response to his survey, now held in the Archive of Art and Design.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (May 30 1887 – February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist, active in France and the United States.
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