Floating Figure

William Zorach, Floating Figure, 1922, cast plaster, 8 ¹⁄₂ x 32 x 6 in. (21.6 x 81.4 x 15.3 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1968.154.3

Artwork Details

Title: Floating Figure
Artist: William Zorach
Date: 1922
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
Luce Foundation Center
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4th Floor
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47A
Dimensions: 8 ¹⁄₂ x 32 x 6 in. (21.6 x 81.4 x 15.3 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar
Mediums: plaster
Mediums Description: cast plaster
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Figure female — nude
Object Number: 1968.154.3
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1968.154.3

Artwork Description

William Zorach was inspired to make Floating Figure by the woman who taught his family to swim and by what he called a “deep feeling of pleasure from the sea.” Zorach simplified his female figures because he believed that the human body, when reduced to its basic forms, was “a thing of sheer beauty.”