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Label Text The Lauren's "The Guitar Player" ...represents the key period of cubist sculpture, which in turn is a major turning point of modern art. ...architectural in form, with solid structure built upward from a stabile base. The sculptural forms are sharply defined and block-like, and seem to interlock one with the other. Geometric relations are carefully articulated, setting straight line againt curve, harmonizing each plane and volume with the next, in rhythmic variation of proportion, angles and mass. Small pattern details, as the hair, fingers, etc., are charcteristically treated as abstract lines, with a lightness of feeling typical of cubist subjects in general. The design functions strongly around the sculpture, presenting different aspects from each viewpoint, and relating its effects to the passage of time. Source: Bulletin, March 1965.
Published ReferencesMartha Laurens, HENRI LAURENS SCULPTEUR, Paris, 1955, ill. p.75

DMAC Bulletin, Mar. 1965, cover ill., 3 ills. p.2

THE NATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, pub. by the Des Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.

DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER, Mar. 7, 1965, ill.

Werner Hofmann, HENRI LAURENS -- DAS PLASTISCHE WERK, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart, n. d., ill. p.78

MUSEUM NEWS, Jan. 1966, ill. p.3

DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.139, b/w ill. pl.78, p.138
DimensionsOverall: 14 7/8 × 4 × 3 1/4 in. (37.8 × 10.2 × 8.3 cm)
Accession Number 1964.141
Classificationssculpture
CopyrightPublic Domain
ProvenanceArtist; Henry Kahnweiler, Paris [1919-1964]; (Galerie Leiris, Paris). J. J. Klejman, New York [probably acquired from the previous, 1964]; Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1964]
Joueuse de Guitare (The Guitar Player)
Photo Credit: Richard Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Richard Sanders, Des Moines