Label Text:
A pioneering figure in the international avant-garde art movement and a cosmopolitan in both her ideas and her background, Alexandra Exter was born to a Greek mother and a Belarusian-Jewish father in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. Brought up and trained in multicultural Kyiv, where she later established an influential studio, she was also active in Odesa, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Paris. In the 1910s, Exter was known for her original work that combined Cubism and Futurism with an emphasis on color.
This painting was sold to Whitney as Exter’s version of Woman at the Piano by Albert Gleizes in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. However, Gleizes dated his work 1914, and Exter left Paris for Kyiv at the beginning of World War I, in summer 1914, and would not return to France for a decade. By 1918, the painting had already belonged to Louise and Walter Arensberg and was hanging in their New York apartment. As a result, Exter would have hardly had a chance to see the artwork in person. Most importantly, the idea that Exter, an established artist who by that time was no less influential than Gleizes, would copy his work is unimaginable. The poor artistic quality of the painting from the Whitney collection increases our suspicion. Although the work uses the language of Cubism, it demonstrates an insufficient understanding of its rules. As an artist who combined Cubism and Futurism, Exter infused her works with energy and movement, which are virtually absent here. Instead of freely overlapping and creating a sense of movement in three-dimensional space, the elements of this painting form a dull two-dimensional plane. While vibrant color was the hallmark of the artist’s compositions, the palette of this work is bland and murky. Overall, the painting appears to be a rather meaningless pastiche that ignores the context of Exter’s oeuvre.
Maria Timina for the exhibition "Art in Doubt: A Critical Examination of the Thomas P. Whitney Collection. Part 2" (2024)
Tags:
abstract; figures; music; furniture; women; musical instruments Subjects:
figures (representations); Furniture; Women; Musical instruments; Music; Art, Abstract Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2001.05 |
