“I employ no other line than the curve, which possesses freshness and force,” Nadelman once declared. Man in the Open Air depicts a figure leaning in an exaggerated, curved stance against a wispy tree trunk. Emblematic of the new directions sculpture would take in the twentieth century, this rendering forgoes the naturalistic depiction or defined musculature typical of monumental bronze sculpture. Though the man’s posture draws from classical forms, details like his hat and tie evidence Nadelman’s interest in American folk and self-taught art, of which the artist had a large collection.
2024
Gallery label from Lincoln Kirstein’s Modern , March 17 – June 15, 2019
“I employ no other line than the curve, which possesses freshness and force,” Nadelman declared. Man in the Open Air is composed of a succession of curves—from the droop of the figure’s bow to the arabesque tracing his body from armpit to toe. While the posture is indebted to classical Greek sculpture, the details of dress bear the influence of American folk art, of which Nadelman had an impressive collection.
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