Large Modern Giraffe Sculpture, Latin American, Mid- Century

A large and early sand cast aluminum Modernist sculpture of a giraffe by Cuban American artist Manuel Carbonell. Pedestal included. Height is 73” with base.
Carbonell’s early sculptures where sand cast and unique. This is an edition of 1/1. Included is the original sketch of the work. Signed, circa 1967. Provenance: Ted Materna. Materna discovered Carbonell in the early 1960s. He produced Carbonell’s gallery catalogs and helped promote him through his public relations firm in NYC.
Manuel Carbonell (1918–2011) was regarded as the last of the Cuban Master Sculptors. He was part of the generation of Cuban artists, which includes Wifredo Lam and Agustin Cardenas, that studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro”, Havana Cuba. Carbonell’s inexhaustible vision and his ever changing-style are the product of a brilliant talent and academic background. Ceaselessly searching for the essence of form and the absence of details, he empowered a sense of strength, monumentality and simplicity to his work.
Exhibited in New York’s Schoneman Gallery for over 17 years. In 1976, he presented to the White House “The Bicentennial Eagle,” now part of the Smithsonian collection. He is known for two of Miami’s largest landmarks: the 53-foot bronze monument at the Brickell Avenue Bridge, “The Tequesta Family,” and the 21-foot bronze and alabaster monument “El Centinela Del Rio,” in Brickell Key.