Abstract Impressionist Figurative Sculptures

William King (1925-2015). Reclining figure, ca. 1965. Cast and welded bronze, 7 x 9.5 x 5 inches. Unsigned. William King, a sculptor in a variety of materials whose human figures traced social attitudes through the last half of the 20th century, often poking sly and poignant fun at human follies and foibles, died on March 4 at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 90. His death was confirmed by Scott Chaskey, who is married to Mr. King's stepdaughter, Megan Chaskey. Mr. King worked in clay, wood, bronze, vinyl, burlap and aluminum. He worked both big and small, from busts and toylike figures to large public art pieces depicting familiar human poses -- a seated, cross-legged man reading; a Western couple (he in a cowboy hat, she in a long dress) holding hands; a tall man reaching down to tug along a recalcitrant little boy; a crowd of robotic-looking men walking in lock step. But for all its variation, what unified his work was a wry observer's arched eyebrow, the pointed humor and witty rue of a fatalist. His figurative sculptures, often with long, spidery legs and an outlandishly skewed ratio of torso to appendages, use gestures and posture to suggest attitude and illustrate his own amusement with the unwieldiness of human physical equipment. His subjects included tennis players and gymnasts, dancers and musicians, and he managed to show appreciation of their physical gifts and comic delight at their contortions and costumery. His suit-wearing businessmen often appeared haughty or pompous; his other men could seem timid or perplexed or awkward. Oddly, or perhaps tellingly, he tended to depict women more reverentially, though in his portrayals of couples the fragility and tender comedy inherent in couplehood settled equally on both partners. Mr. King's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, among other places, and he had dozens of solo gallery shows in New York and elsewhere. But the comic element of his work probably caused his reputation to suffer. Reviews of his exhibitions frequently began with the caveat that even though the work was funny, it was also serious, displaying superior technical skills, imaginative vision and the bolstering weight of a range of influences, from the ancient Etruscans to American folk art to 20th-century artists including Giacometti, Calder. and Elie Nadelman. The critic Hilton Kramer, one of Mr. King's most ardent advocates, wrote in a 1970 essay accompanying a New York gallery exhibit that he was, "among other things, an amusing artist, and nowadays this can, at times, be almost as much a liability as an asset." A "preoccupation with gesture is the focus of King's sculptural imagination," Mr. Kramer wrote. "Everything that one admires in his work - the virtuoso carving, the deft handling of a wide variety of materials, the shrewd observation and resourceful invention - all this is secondary to the concentration on gesture. The physical stance of the human animal as it negotiates the social arena, the unconscious gait that the body assumes in making its way in the social medium, the emotion traced by the course of a limb, a torso, a head, the features of a face, a coiffure or a costume - from a keen observation of these materials King has garnered a large stock of sculptural images notable for their wit, empathy, simplicity and psychological precision." William Dickey King...

Bronze sculpture by Latin American sculptor Raúl Valdivieso (Chilean, 1931-1993). Valdivieso is known for his reinterpretation of the classic organic forms and human figures. Raúl Valdiveso was born September 9, 1931 in Santiago, Chile. In 1952 he began his studies at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Chile. There he took to sculpture and studied under professors like Marta Colvin...

Acrylic paint, textiles and metal on wooden panel, ed. 1/3

Artist: Nili Carasso, Israeli (1951 - ) Title: She and He Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature inscribed Edition: 12 Size: 14.5 x 7 x 6 in. (36.83 x 17.78 x 15.24 cm) Base Size: 2 x ...

Classical mythology is fraught with stories of sexual misdeeds by Zeus, King of the Gods. Often Zeus would fall in love with a mortal woman and then transform himself into an animal ...

Artist: Jean Richardson, American (1940 - ) Title: Gemini Year: 1989 Medium: Bronze Sculpture Edition: 10 Size: 18 x 19 x 12 in. (45.72 x 48.26 x 30.48 cm) Base: 3 x 12 x 12 inches

This 35.43" x 9.84" bronze sculpture by Armenian artist, Arman Hambardzumyan, features a faceless figural form with long legs and a short torso. Th...

This is a bronze cast sculpture by Philip Pavia is part of his series of "Imaginary Portraits from the Club" , a one-man exhibition at Max Protetch Gallery, New York in 1982. The approach at rendering the figure is grotesque, and the facial features have been severely distorted to the point were the portrait becomes an abstract interpretation of the subject. As an artist and writer, Philip Pavia was a committed member of the Abstract Art community throughout his long, distinguished career. Pavia was active in the art world until his death in 2005 and received immense critical praise for his artistic and literary contributions. Recognized for his signature work The Ides of March...

Wood, stone, iron. The raw material and the material of a sculptor. ancestor of any architectural practice. But the architect, the sculptor and the artist do not remain alone in thei...

Wood, stone, iron. The raw material and the material of a sculptor. ancestor of any architectural practice. But the architect, the sculptor and the artist do not remain alone in thei...

This sculpture is a multiple 1 piece of 50 realized in 1980 by the Italian artist Annamaria Gelmi. All the pieces are numbered and signed by the artist and completed by the Certificate of the artist and the Editor who made the artworks. The iron oxidized rust sculpture...

Hand carved sculpture by artist Isabel Ritter. Beautiful encased female sculpture. Stunning on a plinth or a shelf. About the Gallery: Folly & Muse was established in 2015 in London...