Variation on the Theme of Last Embrace (Salvataggio) III

The two drawings by Lipchitz in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection are preparatory studies for one of his last plaster sculptures, Variation on the Theme of the Last Embrace (Salvataggio) III (1970–72). As the title suggests, both the sculpture and the two preliminary drawings represent two embracing figures, a subject touched upon time and again by Lipchitz from his very first decade of work, and to which he referred in the sculpture Working Model for Government of the People (1967), also part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection. In Lipchitz’s oeuvre, this subject expresses a tension between extremes, as the loving embrace can also be read as a clash between two fighting bodies, thus opening the way to opposing interpretations. Art historian Alan Wilkinson writes: "In Lipchitz’s treatment of such themes, the line between love and affection, violence and death is not always clear."