Sorel Etrog (1933 - 2014) is arguably Canada's most famous sculptor.
His works can be found in numerous museums and private collections including the Tate, the AGO and LACMA.
His public sculptures can be found on iconic corners in Toronto, Montreal, Israel and beyond.
The Art Gallery of Ontario organized a major retrospective of his work that ran in 2013.
This work is the earliest Etrog sculpture Caviar20 has handled to date. It is from Etrog's debut period and may be one of his first works to be casted.
This untitled work aka "Venus Figure" merges two signature elements that Etrog employs or combines frequently - the primitive with modernist figuration. The proportions and curves of this work recall the ancient "Venus of Willendorf" sculpture - filtered through Etrog's abstracted bronze lens.
Similar sculptures, referred to as "Venus Figurines" in archaeology, represent ancient fertility and goddess worship. Noted for their exaggerated sexual features (breasts, hips, and thighs), with small heads and little or no arms, these sculptures are some of the earliest forms of prehistoric art. Though created tens of thousands of years before art as we know it today, they predicted and participate in one of the cornerstones of art world tradition, the female nude.
While the tone of Etrog's works gets notably darker during the 1960's as he explores the relationship between man and machine as well as existentialism, sculptures like "Venus Figurine" demonstrate a gentler Modernist sensuality and poetry.
This work appears in the Pierre Restany book, in an image of Etrog's first exhibition at Gallery Moos in Toronto in 1959
Questions about this piece? Contact us or call +1.416.704.1720
"Untitled" ("Venus Figurine")
Canada, 1957
12.5"H 6"W (w base)
Bronze
Incised signature and numbered 3/4 by the artist
Very good condition
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