Abstract Figure Painting

Framed: 19.5" H x 26.5' W x 1' D Painting:15" H x 22" W x 0.5" D Based on abstract sculptures, “Abstract Figure” and “The Salute”, both broach the exciting game of three-dimensional, concave and convex surfaces. They are irregularly and sharply set against each other, resulting in a volume of archaic forcefulness, as if generated by carving stone with flints and hand axes from prehistoric times. On the other hand these forms are also reminiscent of Cubist sculptures from the 1920s and also to works by Alexander Archipenko, Jacques Lipschitz, Ossip Zatkine or Pablo Picasso. The empty, seemingly endless spaces wherein Sprigens’ painted sculptures seem to float weightlessly, are metaphysical abstractions in the tradition of Giorgio de Chirico. In both images, that are kept in a cool, gray-blue, despite all the abstraction, anthropomorphic proportions of human figures do still shine through. There are heads, limbs and bodies in prismatic fragmentation. In the picture “The Salute” the association of female form is more articulated than in the picture “Abstract Figure”. Buttocks, waist and chest are abstract but precisely clarified. To that extent, these two images are also quite heroic, because each lays down, or even celebrates, the attractiveness and beauty of harmonious proportions, yet with Cubist distortion. Text: Prof. Dr. Volker Fischer, Master Curator, Art Historian and Critic, Honorary Professor of the Academy of Art and Design, Offenbach am Main / Frankfurt