Anastassiévitch

Exhibition at the Magen H. Gallery, New York, 1 - 27 November 2018

The French sculptor Boris Anastassiévitch (1926-2004) devoted himself from an early age to drawing and modelling in clay. His first exhibition, at the Galerie Roger in Lyon in 1946, was very well received by the critics. In 1947, he became a pupil of Ossip Zadkine, who taught him to interpret sculpture in its purest form and to move away from naturalism, and he began to experiment tirelessly in his studio.

After enjoying great success in Paris, Anastassiévitch presented his first solo exhibition at the Ulus gallery in Belgrade in 1953, where he had settled. From then on, his works moved away from Cubist influences to express the physical properties of materials and the way in which forms interacted with light and space. By assembling welded sheets, Anastassiévitch succeeded in creating particularly complex forms of extreme refinement, giving the power of metal an extreme lightness.

Covering his entire career, with over 40 works, this exhibition catalogue presents Anastassiévitch's metal sculptures juxtaposed with a selection of his early monotypes and drawings. The publication offers an insight into the life and work of this artist who, throughout his life, never stopped creating, drawing and inventing a world of forms that was uniquely his own.