Abstract Expressionist Nude Sculptures

Quis Mihi Iniuriam Facet Bronze Sculpture Nude Boy Male Figure Marble Stone Wim van der Kant (1949, Kampen) is a selftaught artist. Next to his busy profession as a teacher at a high school, he intensively practises his profession as a sculptor. Only when his work would measure up to his own standards, he decided to present it to the rest of the world...

Wonderful Italian sculpture representing a seated maiden. The artwork rests on a square marble base Signed on the base “Gaetano Martinez Roma” According a written opinion by Prof. Al...

A classical-style Greek sculpture depicting the torso of a woman in marble, wearing a draped dress with detailed folds in the fabric. The dress features a gathered neckline, short pu...

Pietro Bazzanti - Barzanti (Italian, 1825-1895) "After the Bath" - a fantastic quality and large carved white Carrara marble figure of a semi-nude young maiden standing by the sea-shore. The smiling and posing young beauty, with bare breasts and back, her right arm juxtaposed over her head, while holding a blanket over her waist with her left hand and standing barefoot by a rocky seawall and wavy shoreline. Signed 'P. Barzanti/Florence' (on reverse) and raised on a cylindrical swiveling carved verde antico solid marble pedestal. circa: Florence, 1880-1890. Pietro Bazzanti or Barzanti (Italian, 1825-1895) was a 19th Century Italian sculptor born in Florence. Together with his brother, Niccolò Bazzanti (Firenze, 1802-1869) who was also a sculptor, they both worked the sprawling Florentine studio 'Pietro Bazzanti e Figlio' a hugely successful sculpture studio, operated within the family at their gallery on Lungarno Corsini until the mid-twentieth century. The studio was a place where many talented professors and apprentice sculptors specialized in sculpting marble genre scenes and allegorical figures as well as copies of antique and Renaissance sculpture catered to a prominent international clientele which included European and Russian aristocracy, and the Industrial fortunes being made in England and Americas drove considerable export demand. In 1861 the studio was awarded the medal for 'Ercole con cinghiale sulla spalla' (Hercules with boar on shoulder), 'Due Cani' (Two dogs) and 'Cinghiale' (Boar) sculptures at the National Exposition in Florence. In 1874 he exhibits his works in London and in 1876 in Philadelphia. Bazzanti frequently returned to the subject of 'After the Bath' or 'The Bather' in his works, having carved examples of the bathing Venus after the Antique and in dynamic and dramatic compositions such as the present sculpture. The finely-detailed work relates closely to popular figures produced by Bazzanti’s contemporary, Cesar Lapini, whose La Sopresa depicts a young woman stepping back from approaching waves. The sculptor’s penchant for realism is on full display with the contrasting matte and highly-polished finishes of the gently lapping waves at the figure’s feet, to the jutting rocks and soft skin. Elegant handling of textures is further exemplified in the draped fringe of the cloth. This monumental and Fine work is illustrated in situ at Bazzanti’s studio circa 1900 among other fashionable works of the period. Notes: Pietro Bazzanti was also known as Pietro Barzanti. There are conflicting dates of Pietro Bazzanti/Barzanti's birth/death year. Some auction houses and art galleries have described 'Pietro Barzanti' as Italian, 1842–1881 and Pietro Bazzanti as Italian, 1825-1895. However, according to Alfonso Panzetta – Nuovo Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell’ottocento e del Primo Novecento – 2003 Edition –Page 78, 'Pietro Barzanti' was in fact 'Pietro Bazzanti' one and the same, and it questions his year of his birth/death as "Firenze (?), ?, ?." thus we believe that the Italian, 1825-1895 description is the most plausible. Literature: Alfonso Panzetta – Nuovo Dizionario degli Scultori Italiani dell’ottocento e del Primo Novecento – 2003 Edition –Page 78. Auctions: Another example of this sculpture, probably also Pietro Bazzanti but almost a foot shorter (Height 44¾ in. (113.5 cm), unsigned and without its pedestal, was sold at Christie's New York, 19th Century Furniture, Sculpture, Works of Art and Ceramics Sale...

David Bronze Sculpture Nude Boy Male Figure Marble Stone Wim van der Kant (1949, Kampen) is a selftaught artist. Next to his busy profession as a teacher at ...

Elegant marble sculpture fragment depicting a draped female figure, inspired by the ideals of Classical Antiquity and presented in the refine...

Sorbe Small Bronze Sculpture Nude Boy Drinking Male Figure Marble Stone Wim van der Kant (1949, Kampen) is a selftaught artist. Next to his busy profession as a teacher at a high sc...

MEL RAMOS (1935-2018) Dita 2017 Cast and polished stainless steel 58 x 33 x 26 cm 22.83 x 12.99 x 10.24 inches Number 29 of 60, Edition of 60 + 6 A.P. Cast signature and number on b...

Neile is an elegant figurative bronze sculpture of a female nude by Nando Kallweit. Modelled on modern youthful postures but with a nod to the importance of heritage through the sty...

Outstanding Italian Neoclassical Sphinx Carrara Marble sculpture designed as entrance guardian, this mythical lady sphinx statuary display the head and chest of a neoclassical woma...

Amici is an elegant figurative bronze sculpture by Nando Kallweit. Modelled on modern youthful postures but with a nod to the importance of heritage through the stylised Egyptian-in...

Sydney Kumalo. Features a bronze stylized female figural form sculpture fixed to a marble plinth and wood base. Bears signature on base. Measures 9 1/2" x 4 1/4". There is no edition number on the piece. Sydney Kumalo (1935 - 1988) was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, on 13 April 1935. His was one of the families who had to move out of the "white" city to the South Western Townships, or Soweto. Raised in Diepkloof and educated at Madibane High School, he took with him from old Sophiatown the curious and diverse heritage of its heyday. Art classes in the Catholic school, "Sof' town" blues and jazz, the vibrant street culture and growing defiance of its population of various races who were gradually forced out into separate race-group areas. So it was that these various aspects of his early life created for Kumalo a cultural mix of a Zulu family related to the traditional royal house; city schooling, nascent township music and lingo; growing urbanised political defiance and the deep-rooted Zulu pride and respect for the legends and ancient stories of a tribal people. This mix of old and new cultures was reinforced when he began his studies at the Polly Street Art Centre in 1953 where he became a member of Cecil Skotnes group of serious artists who were encouraged to acquire professional skills. Skotnes introduced a basic training programme with modelling as a component, which marked the introduction of sculpting (in brick-clay) at Polly Street. Kumalo was Skotnes’ assistant at Polly Street from 1957 to 1964, and having recognised his great talent as a sculptor, Skotnes encouraged him to become a professional artist. After Kumalo’s very successful assistance with a commission to decorate the St Peter Claver church at Seeisoville near Kroonstad, with painting designs, sculpture and relief panels in 1957, Skotnes arranged for Kumalo to continue his art training by working in Edoardo Villa ’s studio from 1958 to 1960. Working with Villa, he received professional guidance and began to familiarize himself with the technical aspects of sculpting and bronze casting. In 1960 he became an instructor at the Polly Street Art Centre. Kumalo started exhibiting his work with some of the leading commercial Johannesburg galleries in 1958, and had his first solo exhibition with the Egon Guenther Gallery in 1962. He was a leader of the generation who managed to leave behind the forms of African curios, reject the European-held paternalism which encouraged notions of "naive" and "tribal" African art, and yet still hold fast to the core of the old legends and spiritual values of his people. He introduced these subjects into his bronze sculptures and pastel drawings, evolving his own expressive, contemporary African "style". Together with Skotnes, Villa, Cecily Sash and Giuseppe Cattaneo, Kumalo became part of the Amadlozi group in 1963. This was a group of artists promoted by the African art collector and gallery director Egon Guenther, and characterised by their exploration of an African idiom in their art. Elza Miles writes that Cecil Skotnes’ friendship with Egon Guenther had a seminal influence on the aspirant artists of Polly Street: “Guenther broadened their experience by introducing them to German Expressionism as well as the sculptural traditions of West and Central Africa. He familiarised them with the work of Ernst Barlach, Käthe Kollwitz, Gustav Seitz, Willi Baumeister and Rudolf Sharf.” It is therefore not surprising that some of Kumalo’s sculptures show an affinity with Barlach’s powerful expressionist works. Guenther organised for the Amadlozi group to hold exhibitions around Italy, in Rome, Venice, Milan and Florence, in both 1963 and 1964. Kumalo’s career took off in the mid 1960s, with his regular participation in exhibitions in Johannesburg, London, New York and Europe. He also represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 1966, and in 1967 participated in the São Paulo Biennale. EJ De Jager (1992) describes Kumalo’s sculpture as retaining much of the “canon and formal aesthetic qualities of classical African sculpture. His work contains the same monumentality and simplicity of form.” His main medium for modelling was terra cotta, which was then cast in bronze, always paying careful attention to the finish of both the model as well as the final cast. He began casting the pieces he modelled in clay or plaster into bronze at the Renzo Vignali Artistic Foundry in Pretoria North. He worked throughout his life with its owners, the Gamberini family, and enjoyed learning the technical aspects of the casting process, refining his surfaces according to what he learned would produce the best results in metal. De Jager further writes that Kumalo’s distinctive texturing of the bronze or terra cotta is reminiscent of traditional carving techniques of various African cultures. “In many respects Kumalo thus innovated a genuine contemporary or modern indigenous South African sculpture”. Kumalo came to admire the works of the Cubists, and of British sculptors Henry Moore and Lynn Chadwick. He became noted for adapting shapes from them into his own figures. The success of his use of the then current monumental simplicity and purely aesthetic abstractions of natural forms has been emulated by many South African sculptors since the 1970s. He was in many ways the doyen of South African Black art. As such he was an important influence especially on younger African sculptors, by whom he is greatly revered. Through his teaching at Polly Street and at the Jubilee Centre, as well as through his personal example of integrity, dedication and ability, he inspired and guided students who in their own right became outstanding artists, for example, Ezrom Legae, Leonard Matsoso and Louis Maqhubela From 1969 onward, he allied himself with Linda Givon, founder of The Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, where he exhibited regularly until his death in December 1988. Working with Givon also perpetuated his associations with his many friends of strong principles. Skotnes, Villa, Legae and later such peers from the Polly Street era as Leonard Matsoso, Durant Sihlali and David Koloane have all exhibited at The Goodman Gallery. Kumalo, Legae, and later Fikile (Magadlela) and Dumile (Feni) were among the leading exponents of a new Afrocentric art...