9 х 11.5 х 3 in. cm.
Executed in white terracotta, with a smooth surface evenly perforated by geometric shapes, “Ballet Teacher” is a representative piece from Alexander Ney’s best-known body of work. The sculpture bears many of the hallmarks of Ney’s style when working in terracotta: delicacy of texture, a playful relationship to line and volume, and an affinity for organic materials and forms reminiscent of nature. "Ballet Teacher" sits on a dark wood base and the artist’s signature and date are carved into the bottom, as pictured.
Alexander Ney (b. 1939, Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a contemporary American sculptor and painter. He is best known for his semi-figurative sculptures made from clay, sand, stone, and wood. Ney’s work often joins timeless subject matter with a modernist aesthetic, with inspiration drawn from twentieth-century European art as well as from the folk art of Asia, Africa, and North America. From 1978 to the mid-1990s, Ney’s work was displayed annually in the windows of the Tiffany & Co. flagship store on East 57th Street in New York. He has exhibited at the National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia (2009); the Russian Consulate, New York, NY (2007); Mimi Ferzt Gallery, New York, NY (2004, 2007); the Chelsea Art Museum (2004); St. Mark’s Gallery, New York, NY (1986); Arras Gallery, New York, NY (1981); and Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY (1975), among many others.
Selected Public Collections:
Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
State Tsaritsino Museum of Art, Moscow, Russia
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Chassidic Art Institute, Brooklyn, NY