Untitled [Maquette for the Olivetti Showroom, New York City, NY]

Nivola started experimenting with various designs for the final Olivetti Showroom bas-relief in 1953. There are four known compositions; Untitled [Maquette for the Olivetti Showroom, NY] was one of the later designs realized by Nivola. The relief is animated by a series of abstracted figures that span the height of the cast relief. Whilst none of the compositions that the artist experimented with correspond precisely to the full-scale work, there are key elements that appear in modified form—for example, the breasted figure; the rectangular shape surrounded by a pointed collar painted in black; and the decorative patterning, although these elements were left unpainted in the full-scale version. The figures are interspersed with geometric shapes and organic forms in an interplay of texture and shape that unify the composition. Nivola experimented with the relation between positive and negative space, and this is accented in a more muted way than the earlier version of the composition on display.