Celene

Tanya Ashken began training at the studio of sculptor André Del Debbio in Paris in the early 1960s, but the major turning point in her life came when she visited the atelier of French-Romanian artist Constantin Brâncuși. Although Brâncuși had died in 1957, his work was still in his studio and Ashken recalled climbing up chunks of marble piled against an outside wall to peer through a skylight into the studio below. Brâncuși’s work contains remarkable energy and movement, and often suggests living beings through abstracted forms. After seeing these sculptures, Ashken began to carve. Celene was made from a chunk of marble found by the roadside in Carrara, Italy. The folded and shell-like sculpture Celene, 1964–65, is a homage to the moon goddess, Selene. In Ashken’s hands the small piece of rock becomes a frozen fold of cloth, curl of cloud, or bent bird’s wing. Everything in the work is about balance, as the weight and span of the curved marble pulls up from its narrow base.

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