1965.11 Alicia Penalba, Grande Imanta, 1962

In 1951, Alicia Penalba created her first abstract sculpture, abandoning figural representation and her previous body of work. This bronze is representative of Penalba’s mature style, characterized by harmonious balance, upward growth, and rhythmic, gestural lines. The layers, each appearing to stack atop and build off of the one below, seem to open up and take flight like anthropomorphized wings. Although she preferred the malleability of clay, Penalba made her large-scale sculptures almost exclusively from durable bronze or marble.

Erin Piñon, Tower Gallery: Latin American Art, Label text, 2017.

Penalba_Alicia: ULAN: 500056221

France (nation): TGN: 1000070

Dax (inhabited place / Nouvelle-Aquitaine / France): TGN: 7008181

Argentina (nation): TGN: 7006477

San Pedro (inhabited place / Santiago del Estero / Argentina): TGN: 1136465

Paris (France): TGN: 7008038

bronze: AAT: 300010957

casting (process): AAT: 300053104

casts (sculpture): AAT: 300047806

metalwork: AAT: 300015336

metalworking: AAT: 300053946

sculpture: AAT: 300047090

abstract: AAT: 300108127

abstraction: AAT: 300056508

figures (representations): AAT: 300189808

human figures: AAT: 300404114

harmony (artistic concepts): AAT: 300056276

balance (composition concept): AAT: 300056247

growth: AAT: 300055136

rhythm (formal concept): AAT: 300056305

gesture: AAT: 300056179

lines (artistic concept): AAT: 300400858

lines (geometric concept): AAT: 300056279

layers (components): AAT: 300226788

flying: DMA

anthropomorphic: AAT: 300010335

wings (animal components): AAT: 300375053

large-format (size/dimensions): AAT: 300379501

marble: AAT: 300011443

form (composition concepts): AAT: 300056272

geometric shape: AAT: 300263819

geometric motifs: AAT: 300009764

geometric abstraction: AAT: 300056509

curves (geometric figures): AAT: 300378887

curvilinear (shape): AAT: 300154222

triangles (polygons): AAT: 300009806

triangular (polygonal): AAT: 300263833

squares (geometric figures): AAT: 300055637

motion (dynamics/mechanics concepts): AAT: 300055907

From 1965: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of John Stemmons, Storey Stemmons and Trammel Crow in commemoration of the Dallas Beautification Award, 1965 [1], [2], [3], [4]

[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.  

[2] The main source for this provenance is letter from Trammell Crow to Merrill C. Rueppel, Director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (dated February 17, 1965, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[3] The main source for this provenance is letter from Merrill C. Rueppel, Director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, to Trammell Crow (dated February 26, 1965, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.