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Largo-May

Largo-May is a hammered copper sculpture by Saul Baizerman made between 1950 and 1957.
It depicts a female figure from the middle of her neck down to her shins. Although she lacks ahead, hands, and feet, she does not feel incomplete because her posture is so animated. She
may be flirting, passing the time in the sun daydreaming, or perhaps gently stretching out a tired
back. Her left knee is slightly bent, with her left shin beginning to cross in front of the right. Her
right hip thrusts just a bit to the side, and her right wrist rests behind that hip. The sculpture is
just under three feet tall, a little over one foot across, and about half-a-foot from front to back. It
is connected to a thick metal base by two metal rods screwed into it and hidden behind her. A
few inches separate her shins from the base, so that she is floating.

Largo-May was created by hammering a cold sheet of copper to create a relief image rather
than sculpting a solid form. While her small breasts, narrow hips, and slender limbs are lifelike,
the artwork feels more like it depicts linens laid over a woman rather than a woman herself.
There is no open space between her arms and her sides; she is one continuous piece of metal
all the way across. The copper sheet reaches a little past the outline of her body, giving the
piece soft rippling edges.

Hammering copper sheets results in an artwork with a rough texture reminiscent of citrus fruit
rind. In places where the ball peen hammer hit harder, it created tiny dents surrounded by little
walls whose shadows fall in. Where the metal was hammered with a lighter touch, shallow dips
catch more light. This all-over unevenness allows the form to play with light. Gleaming bright
spots are scattered among dark spots, and if the gallery lights were angled differently, the areas
of light and shadow would change along with them. Age has turned much of the metal dark
brown like an old penny, though patches here and there maintain something of the original bright orangey color of the copper. Regardless of tone, any of the curves where the light hits
metal directly absolutely shimmer.