American Art Collaborative

“A fragment of [sculpture] may be sublime.” Artist quoted in Roberta Tarbell, Catalogue Raisonné of William Zorach’s Carved Sculpture, 197
William Zorach had a strong interest in the nude female form, which he simplified greatly in his torsos, emphasizing the smooth contours and basic shapes. Although Zorach used similar proportions in many of them, the type of material often determined the form. For example, the extremely hard granite of Torso made it more difficult to carve, resulting in a simpler design than the softer marble of Undaunted (Roberta Tarbell, Catalogue Raisonné of William Zorach’s Carved Sculpture, 1976)