Lot 22
SOREL ETROG, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature:
William J. Withrow, Sorel Etrog, Wilfield Publishing Co. Limited, Verona, 1967, page 12.
Note:
In the late 1950s Sorel Etrog (1933-2014) was studying at the Brooklyn Museum Art Institute. The museum possesses an exceptional collection of ancient and primitive art which Etrog would have been able to view. William Withrow writes of Etrog's enthusiasm for "African, Cycladic, Etruscan and Luristan artifacts" and it is easy to see echoes of the fertility goddesses and other votive figures from these civilizations in this lot. It was Withrow's opinion that Etrog was drawn to this primitive art for "its rich simplicity which says so much with so little." Indeed this diminutive figure takes full advantage of the effects of compression in art and seems to command the space it occupies and beyond, albeit in a radiant rather than dictatorial way.