By placing a hole where the head should be, incising two lines to represent hair, and using concave shapes to suggest the convex, Alexander Archipenko reinterpreted the traditional form of the female nude. This new model, which uses the void as form, forces the viewer to fill in the spaces. According to Archipenko, "Through the modulation of space, our consciousness participates in the creative process because that which does not exist is re-created within us in the abstract form of space, and becomes a reality in our optical memory. . . . For me the non-existence of something provoked the desire and impulse to transform the absent into reality."

Excerpt from

Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2008.

• Guggenheim, New York
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