Study for "Theseus"

Before Jacques Lipchitz created a three-dimensional sculpture, he often explored his ideas in two-dimensional work. Lipchitz made this pair of preliminary studies for a sculpture inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus’s battle with the half-bull, half-man Minotaur. He layered a variety of media on paper to create the curving, bulbous forms. The depictions of twisting limbs and a tangle of struggling bodies directly translate to the sculpture. Likewise, the rough, gestural qualities of the studies on paper are echoed by the dynamic energy of Lipchitz’s finished bronze.