Alicia Penalba (1913-1982) - Lot 279

Alicia Penalba (1913-1982) Small refuge 1958; Cast by Da Patro, Pietrasanta, Italy Gilded bronze Monogrammed "AP" and numbered "43/300". Total height 25.5 cm Related literature -Victoria Giraudo, Alicia Penalba: escultora, cat. exp. Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, October 2016-February 2017, RM, RA, MALBA, 2016, model listed under no. 60. b., p. 226. Born and raised in Argentina, Alicia Penalba grew up wandering between Chile, Patagonia and the Andes Mountains, as her father, a railroad builder, moved from place to place. Her art undoubtedly stems from this, from the sculptural beauty of wilderness, rocks, trees, caves and mountains, which she interprets with her own personal way of organizing space. At the turn of the '40s, after her modest first steps as an artist at the Salon Nacional de Bueno-Aires, she obtained a grant from the French government and moved to Paris, where she studied engraving at the Beaux-Arts. She made friends with Matisse, but it was in the studios of Honorio Condoy and then Ossip Zadkine that she finally found her calling. In 1957, she exhibited at Galerie du Dragon, then in 1960 at Claude Bernard. Her career was launched, and in 1961 she won the International Sculpture Prize at the Sao-Paulo Biennial. She exhibited all over the world, including New York, Rio, Rome and Milan, creating inventive sculpture, sometimes aerial, sometimes organic, made of hollows, niches and towers that create a dialogue between light and shadow. She organizes space and creates work that is often linked to architecture or landscape. Curious and passionate, she also turns to the decorative arts, experimenting with ceramics, jewelry and tapestries. Her creations found their way into the collections of the most prestigious museums, and her work was acclaimed in 1977 with a major retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris.