Seated Figure

Beginning in 1900, young painters and sculptors of all nationalities migrated to the Paris neighborhood of Montparnasse, the city’s hub of avant-garde activity. Despite their different approaches and interests, the artists of the so-called School of Paris fostered an inspiring climate of imaginative cross-fertilization that helped to sustain the idea of Paris as the center of artistic activity until the beginning of World War II. Jacques Lipchitz moved to Paris in 1909, and through his friendships with Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, and others, he participated in the Cubist movement. His bas-reliefs and sculptures in the round communicate the geometric and fractured forms and the favored subject matter (musicians and seated bathers, for example) of contemporary Cubist paintings.