Playfulness

Artist Paul Manship (American, 1885-1966)

Date1912

Mediumbronze with brown patina

DimensionsOverall: 12 1/2 × 12 × 6 1/4 in. (31.8 × 30.5 × 15.9 cm)

Credit LineGift of an anonymous donor

Label TextClassical and art deco sculptor Paul Manship was one of the foremost American artists of the early twentieth century. His simple yet elegant bronze sculptures are featured in countless prominent museums, sculpture parks, and public plazas, and include the famous gilded Prometheus statue that features in one of the plazas at the nation’s definitive example of art deco architecture, Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center. Though acclaimed and popular both during his own time and today, his longstanding passion for ancient styles and subjects and involvement with the conservative National Academy of Design, National Sculpture Society, and American Academy of Arts and Letters helped him gain a reputation as an opponent of modernism - a reputation that may help to explain the loss of popularity his work endured in the mid-twentieth century. Manship designed Playfulness while living in Rome after receiving the prestigious Rome Prize in 1909. While in Rome he grew more and more interested in classical subjects and styles, and his interest in Greek and Etruscan sculpture likely influenced his decision to represent an idealized semi-nude female figure with almond-shaped eyes and flowing hair and wearing only a draped cloth. Playfulness also embodies the tendency towards symbolic representation of ideals and emotions through representation of classicized figures that was popular among many Neoclassicists. The sculpture’s title is also apt because, like many of Manship’s works, it incorporates a jocose sort of balancing act in the air above its stand.

Discover More

There are no works to discover for this record.