Daniel Libeskind takes on modern masters of sculpture

Architect Daniel Libeskind has created an installation New York gallery Luxembourg

Architect Daniel Libeskind has created an installation at New York gallery Luxembourg & Dayan to complement 20th-century abstract sculptures. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan

(Image credit: Andrew Romer)

By Kelsey Mulvey

last updated 14 October 2022

If there’s one thing abstract art is not, it’s straightforward. Packed with meaning, often beguilingly simple in design, the style has the power to simultaneously inspire and bewilder.

Some may think a series of seemingly arbitrary curves and lines are empty or over-simplified. But Daniella Luxembourg, art dealer and one half of New York gallery Luxembourg & Dayan, would argue the devil doesn’t always lie in the details — but sometimes in the lack thereof. ‘Abstract art was once one of the most radical and thought-provoking movements,’ says Luxembourg.

This month, she joined forces with friend and famed architect Daniel Libeskind (of Manchester’s Imperial War Museum) to release ‘Figures Toward Abstraction: Sculpture 1910 – 1940’ at Luxembourg’s gallery.

Figures Toward Abstraction: Sculpture — *Nu assis bras autour de la ambe droite, by Henri Matisse, conceived 1918, cast 1930. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan*

Inspired by a letter artist Alberto Giacometti wrote to Henri Matisse in 1947, which explained his unintentional decision to create abstract sculptures, the exhibition breathes life into an ongoing conversation between Luxembourg and Libeskind about abstraction in art, architecture, history, and life.

‘I think abstraction at the beginning of the century has to do with the pure essence of sculpture,’ Luxembourg explains. ‘You didn’t need the image to create the movement. You could make an abstract movement without putting details into where are the legs, or where is the head.’

Though Luxembourg credits Giacometti and Matisse as pillars of the exhibition, ‘Figures Toward Abstraction’ features an array of artists like Julio González, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, and Jean Tinguely. Additionally, Rudolf Belling’s groundbreaking Dreiklang (1919) is on display for the first time in the US.

The show’s levels of abstraction range from Lauren’s tangible Femme accouchée (1927) to Lauren’s hard-to-decipher cubism and Gonzalez’s interpretable bronze works. In total, the exhibition features 13 sculptures surrounded by an installation designed by Libeskind, who's clean, minimalist aesthetic lets the sculptures do all the talking.

Objet désagréable a jeter, Figure, dite cubiste I, — *Objet désagréable a jeter,* by Alberto Giacometti, conceived 1931, cast 1979. Right, *Figure, dite cubiste I,* by Alberto Giacometti, conceived c1926, cast 1962-3

*Figure, dite cubiste I,* by Alberto Giacometti, conceived c1926, cast 1962-3. *Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan*

Le Tiaré, by Henri Matisse, Le rêve (Le baiser) — *Le Tiaré,* by Henri Matisse, conceived 1930, cast 1954 . Right, *Le rêve (Le baiser),* by Julio González, conceived 1934, cast 1980

*Le rêve (Le baiser),* by Julio González, conceived 1934, cast 1980. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan

*Dreiklang,* by Rudolf Belling, conceived 1919 (cast at a later date). *Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan*

INFORMATION

‘Figures Toward Abstraction: Sculpture 1910 – 1940’ is on view until 1 July. For more information, visit the Luxembourg & Dayan website

ADDRESS

Luxembourg & Dayan
64 East 77th Street
New York, NY 10075

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

TOPICS