Standing Figure

late 1940s

Marion Perkins
American, 1908–1961

Chicago sculptor Marion Perkins began making art in the late 1930s. Known for commanding heads and busts carved from wood, stone, and marble that he salvaged from architectural ruins around the city, the full-length body of Standing Figure was unusual for him. Here, a woman presses her arms tightly to herself, her head thrown back. Her sinuous position recalls Classical Greek and Roman sculptures, while her exaggerated features and restrained form are emblematic of Perkins’s individual style.

Status: On View, Gallery 264
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Marion Perkins
Title: Standing Figure
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1945–1949
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: Overall, without base: 90.8 × 20.3 × 15.2 cm (35 1/4 × 8 × 6 in.); Base: 8.9 × 45.7 × 45.7 cm (3 1/2 × 18 × 18 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior bequest of Marguerita S. Ritman
Reference Number: 1996.401

Daniel Schulman, “Marion Perkins: A Chicago Sculptor Rediscovered,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, no. 2 (1999): 100, fig. 20.
Sarah Kelly Oehler, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 91–93, cat. 92 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950, Mar. 3–June 3, 2013, cat. 92.
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, The Time is Now!: Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960–1980, Sept. 13–Dec. 30, 2018, cat. 19.

The artist, late 1940s; sold to William McBride [Schulman 1999]. Susan Woodson Gallery, Chicago, by April 1995 [correspondence between Daniel Schulman and Susan Woodson, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1996.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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