Pablo Curatella Manes

Art Deco, Cubist figure of a lying lady. Called by the Artist The Lying Nymph. Made between 1921-1926. Terracotta over a black wooden base. Bio: Pablo Curatella Manes (December 14, 1891–November 14, 1962) was a prolific Argentine sculptor. Born in La Plata in 1891 to Clara Manes, a Greek Argentine immigrant, and Antonio Curatella, from Italy, Curatella Manes first acquired an interest in sculpture during his frequent childhood visits to the newly inaugurated La Plata Fine Arts Museum. He entered the labor force in 1905, as a typographer in a printing house, though an accident some months later ended his career in that industry. Drawing on his childhood interest, he was taught the basics of sculpture by Arturo Dresco, who owned a local atelier. The Curatellas relocated to Buenos Aires, where the young sculptor enrolled in the National Fine Arts School in 1907. A rebellious streak promptly led to his expulsion, though Curatella earned an apprenticeship in 1908, under Lucio Correa Morales, with whom he worked on a number of works commissioned by Public Parks Director Charles Thays. Following the 1910 elections, he created a commemorative gold medal for Vice President-elect Victorino de la Plaza, who secured a scholarship for Curatella that took him to Florence and Rome. Curatella traveled extensively in Italy, as well as much of Western Europe, touring the region's museums and cathedrals. On his return to Argentina in 1912, National Fine Arts School director Ernesto de la Cárcova nearly ordered the funds' repayment, objecting to travel and activities not covered by the scholarship, desisting from the punishment after being shown a folio of Curatella's prolific work. His first Buenos Aires exhibit, in 1912, was followed by a return to Europe. He settled in the Montparnasse section of Paris and studied under Aristide Maillol and Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, but was forced to return home after the outbreak of World War I. In his native La Plata he opened an art gallery, the Salón de Otoño (Autumn Salon), in 1916. A brief return in 1917 to Paris, where Curatella worked under Maillol, Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier, was eventually followed by a second scholarship, with which he settled in Paris in 1920. Studying under Henri Laurens, Juan Gris, Constantin Brâncu?i and Le Corbusier, Curatella explored Cubism, and his sculptures became more avant-garde; he also established his first atelier, where he acquired the habit of creating and destroying sculptures in a single day. He married French painter Germaine Derbecqre in 1922 and in 1926, was given a post in the Argentine Embassy. Returning to Argentina in 1929, he exhibited Las Tres Gracias...