editions
Peter Agostini
"Squeeze", 1960
7 x 14 x 10 inches
White patinated bronze
Cast in 2007
An edition of six examples with two in plaster and four in bronze (plus two AP's in bronze.) #1/6b in bronze and #2/6p in plaster have been sold. Object is available in bronze or plaster. Price available upon request.
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Louisa Matthiasdottir
Untitled (Bust)
stamped with estate stamp, foundry mark and edition numberv bronze with white patina
32 x 14 x 12 1/4 in. (81.3 x 35.6 x 31.1 cm.)
Conceived circa 1960 and cast in 2008
edition of eight (plus 3 aps)
Mold by Phillip Howie
Cast at Polich Tallix
published by Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects , Lori Bookstein Fine Art and the estate of Louisa Matthaisdottir
LITERATURE
J. Perl (ed.), Louisa Matthiasdottir, Reykjavik, 1999, p. 79 (illustrated).
Louisa Matthiasdottir, known as one of Iceland's most important painters, also produced a significant body of figurative sculpture. She began sculpting with clay in the mid 1950s but her major sculptural works were created in the late 1950s and early-60s when, as art historian Martica Sawin describes it, 'her attention was drawn to some plaster in the backyard which had been left over from the restoration of their house. With characteristic frugality or practicality, and perhaps with lingering memories of Giacometti's studio, she began fashioning the material into sculpture using whatever was on hand, from tin cans to string, as an armature. Since this was simply 'found material' she had no hesitation about working with it boldly and freely, using much the same decisive, uninterrupted start-to-finish approach that she applied to painting.' She may also have been influenced by the 'fullness' of the forms of the New York sculptor Turku Trajans direct plaster figures whose studio she visited.
Matthiasdottir's sculptures of womens' heads remind us of the many paintings she made of her adolescent daughter Temma as well as the painted self-portraits that pre-occupied her throughout her career. They possess an intensity that contrasts the strong smooth curve of the chin, brow and full lips with the rough expressive textures of the hair and back. Because of the way they were created in direct plaster with improvised armatures, the original plasters are extremely fragile. The only previous bronze casting was of a smaller sculpture from which there are few known examples extant. The artist expressed some dissatisfaction with the darkness of that earlier cast. This bust is patinated in white. Rather than replicating the plaster original, it possesses the weight and monumentality of bronze while still carrying some of the luminosity of MatthÃasdóttir's sculptural vision.
As Sawin notes about the artists sculpture, 'The authority which she exercised reveals essential characteristics of Matthiasdottir's artistic core. That is her ability to see through surface to fundamental structure and record it unerringly.' This rediscovery of the artist's early sculptural work reveals a new dimension in the understanding of this important Nordic artist's contribution.
< back
Peter Agostini
"Squeeze", 19607 x 14 x 10 inches
White patinated bronze
Cast in 2007
An edition of six examples with two in plaster and four in bronze (plus two AP's in bronze.) #1/6b in bronze and #2/6p in plaster have been sold. Object is available in bronze or plaster. Price available upon request.
< back
Louisa Matthiasdottir
Untitled (Bust) stamped with estate stamp, foundry mark and edition numberv bronze with white patina
32 x 14 x 12 1/4 in. (81.3 x 35.6 x 31.1 cm.)
Conceived circa 1960 and cast in 2008
edition of eight (plus 3 aps)
Mold by Phillip Howie
Cast at Polich Tallix
published by Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects , Lori Bookstein Fine Art and the estate of Louisa Matthaisdottir
LITERATURE
J. Perl (ed.), Louisa Matthiasdottir, Reykjavik, 1999, p. 79 (illustrated).
Louisa Matthiasdottir, known as one of Iceland's most important painters, also produced a significant body of figurative sculpture. She began sculpting with clay in the mid 1950s but her major sculptural works were created in the late 1950s and early-60s when, as art historian Martica Sawin describes it, 'her attention was drawn to some plaster in the backyard which had been left over from the restoration of their house. With characteristic frugality or practicality, and perhaps with lingering memories of Giacometti's studio, she began fashioning the material into sculpture using whatever was on hand, from tin cans to string, as an armature. Since this was simply 'found material' she had no hesitation about working with it boldly and freely, using much the same decisive, uninterrupted start-to-finish approach that she applied to painting.' She may also have been influenced by the 'fullness' of the forms of the New York sculptor Turku Trajans direct plaster figures whose studio she visited.
Matthiasdottir's sculptures of womens' heads remind us of the many paintings she made of her adolescent daughter Temma as well as the painted self-portraits that pre-occupied her throughout her career. They possess an intensity that contrasts the strong smooth curve of the chin, brow and full lips with the rough expressive textures of the hair and back. Because of the way they were created in direct plaster with improvised armatures, the original plasters are extremely fragile. The only previous bronze casting was of a smaller sculpture from which there are few known examples extant. The artist expressed some dissatisfaction with the darkness of that earlier cast. This bust is patinated in white. Rather than replicating the plaster original, it possesses the weight and monumentality of bronze while still carrying some of the luminosity of MatthÃasdóttir's sculptural vision.
As Sawin notes about the artists sculpture, 'The authority which she exercised reveals essential characteristics of Matthiasdottir's artistic core. That is her ability to see through surface to fundamental structure and record it unerringly.' This rediscovery of the artist's early sculptural work reveals a new dimension in the understanding of this important Nordic artist's contribution.
< back