Femme au chignon – Woman with Hair in a Bun
1930 -
Medium : iron
Dimensions : 25x22,9x24,1 cm
« Femme au chignon (Women with hair in a bun) » is an iron sculpture executed by Julio González c. 1930. It is currently on display in the Art Institute of Chicago.
This work is an innovative depiction of a traditional subject–a woman’s head—whose features and forms have been simplified, and whose volumes have been dematerialized. It is composed of a parallel succession of iron plates supported by a vertical base: a quadrilateral in the front, with a triangle placed perpendicularly in the center, followed by an oval, with yet another plate behind it with a rounded extremity on the left side visible from the front. The iron triangle represents the nose, while the series of short iron rods, connecting the front and the middle plates represents a wisp of hair hanging down from the forehead, while the circle in the back represents the bun referenced in the title. The head is slightly askew, as though the subject is looking up, somewhat curiously or pensively.
This abstracted head is one of a series of nearly thirty executed by González in the early 1930s—the most abstract period of his career. This sort of head rendered “in depth” is one of the avenues of formal experimentation González is able to pursue thanks to his innovative industrial welding technique—unprecedented in artistic circles–and his revolutionary personal vision.
In recognition of the important mark that pioneering works like “Woman with hair in a bun” have left on the course of modern sculpture, this work is on view in the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection.
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PORTRAIT DE FILLETTE (PORTRAIT OF A LITTLE GIRL)
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PERSONNAGE DIT “FEMME AU MIROIR” – FIGURE KNOWN AS “WOMAN WITH MIRROR”
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