Trio, 1972, signed and numbered, bronze. About the artist : Alicia Peñalba is born in 1913 in San Pedro, Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Following her father, builder of railways in the countries of Latin America, as a child, she grows up with the deserts and tropical forests. Alicia Peñalba is later on, a student in drawing and painting at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. After moving to Paris in 1948, she abandons painting to devote herself exclusively to sculpture; she works for three years in the workshop of Ossip Zadkine at the Large Thatched Cottage. In 1952, Alicia Peñalba shows her work in numerous community events and Salons in Paris (Salon of Young Sculpture, New Realities Salon, International Exhibition of Rodin Museum, various biennials, etc.). Her works are also shown in solo exhibitions, the first being held in Paris in 1957. In 1952, the artist has acquired some of the constants that would characterize her style, working the verticality of totems that evoke petrified exotic plants. Over the years, her work continues in this direction, but sculptures designed for architectural integration are added (petal shapes hanging in space with extremely audacious solutions). If the first part of her work makes Alicia Peñalba an interesting sculptor among many others in the mainstream of international abstraction of the 60s, the second part, new vision of sculpture, places her among the major sculptors of her generation (Etienne-Martin, Stahly, Germaine Richier, Caroline Lee, etc.). Alicia Peñalba throughout her artistic career sees her work exhibited in France and abroad (Museum of Modern Art in Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Eindhoven, Leverkusen, etc.). In 1961, she receives the grand prize for sculpture at the Biennial of Sao Paulo. Alicia Peñalba receives large and multiple public and private orders, her work is part of the collections of major international museums, especially the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (Netherlands), alongside works created by the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century. Alicia Peñalba dies accidentally near Dax (Landes, France) in 1982. Her work forms part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou (Paris); the Brooklyn Museum and the Schulhof Collection (New York); the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC); Fondation Pierre Gianadda (Martigny, Switzerland); Zentrum Paul Klee (Berne, Switzerland); Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller (Otterlo, the Netherlands); Museu de Arte Moderna (Río de Janeiro); Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (Santiago, Chile); Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas; and the Colección de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires).