Autumn 1948

Curator: Henri Laurens created "Autumn" in 1948 using bronze in a carving process. The work beautifully exemplifies modernist sculpture, mixing abstraction and figuration. Editor: Immediately, the sheer mass strikes me. The interplay of smooth curves and rough texture in the bronze generates this tangible feeling of weight and gravity. It feels monumental, though I imagine it’s relatively small in person. Curator: Actually, your intuition is spot-on. The sculpture's considerable weight reflects the war time scarcities that influenced material choices across art. There was also limited access to workshops with the appropriate machinery; how does the final object echo any limitations of making during that era? Editor: Knowing it was carved and cast in bronze really shifts my perception. I find myself appreciating the curves. Consider how light moves across the sinuous surfaces, especially emphasizing her torso—a real harmony between light and volume there. Curator: That sinuous curve suggests this is about cyclical changes; there’s a particular relationship between figuration and landscape painting happening in Europe that echoes a post-war "back to the land" movement. So it seems this treatment of the body is an allegory for the health and endurance of the nation itself, an idealized and almost mythic notion. Editor: And from a purely formal perspective, the sculpture's overall composition pulls the eye in multiple directions. The pose feels deliberately ambiguous, almost like an object one might handle or look at from different viewpoints. Curator: This would be reflective of Laurens embracing non-Western ideas from early in the 20th century, particularly from ethnographic objects from Oceanic and African cultures that are abstracted representations of the body. He seemed focused on these sources over Greco-Roman models. Editor: It seems there is real attention being paid to making a tangible image that explores texture, light, and visual relationships. The artist's vision coalesces into a unique perspective through material and form. Curator: For me, “Autumn” resonates powerfully. Seeing how resource constraints drove innovation reveals a new level of ingenuity within that period of postwar artmaking.