Study for "Archangel" 1962

Seymour Lipton created this drawing titled "Study for Archangel", date unknown, with graphite on paper. Lipton, born to Jewish-immigrant parents, started his career as a dentist before becoming a self-taught sculptor. The 1940s and 50s were a fraught time in the United States, marked by the Cold War, McCarthyism, and the Korean War. Lipton, like many artists, sought to express the anxieties and uncertainties of the Atomic Age. As a sculptor, he worked primarily with bronze, lead and eventually Monel metal to create tortured biomorphic forms. This sketch of an Archangel suggests not a divine messenger of hope, but something altogether more ambiguous. The rough, angular lines convey a sense of unease. The figure seems burdened, wings heavy, perhaps reflecting Lipton's own grappling with the socio-political tensions of his time. While the title suggests a figure of strength, the drawing evokes a sense of vulnerability. One wonders if this archangel is falling rather than ascending.