My Life with Alexander Archipenko

Modernist sculptor Alexander Archipenko, (born 1887, Kiev; died 1964, New York City) has been called the “Picasso of Sculpture” for the Cubist elements he introduced to create a new way of looking at the human figure. This deeply personal biography written by his artist wife during his last eight years, casts a new light on this extremely productive, innovative, but little-known period of his career. Despite an age difference of nearly fifty years, Frances Gray, a student at his school in Woodstock, New York, formed a deep and lasting companionship with Archipenko, leading to marriage in 1957. Gray paints a rounded picture of a complex and fascinating personality, part artist, part businessman, part spiritual seeker. When the art world turned away from modernism toward Abstract Expressionism, Archipenko’s work fell from critical favour. Archipenko was increasingly plagued by problems with forgeries and fraudulent authentications of his work, and the book casts a new light on his resulting volatile relationships with many dealers, museums and collectors.