Full Moon – 1950 – Museum of Modern Art, New York

“Variation Within A Sphere #7: Full Moon” was shown alone at Willard Gallery in New York City receiving acclaim from the public and attracting great interest from architects.

Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius admired the work and realized how well Mr. Lippold related sculpture to the surrounding environment, leading to a life-long collaboration with the greatest architects of the time.

Nelson Rockefeller, upon admiring this work told Marian Willard that if the work was not sold at the end of the exhibition he would buy it. He lost to Alfred Barr, founder and Director of The Museum of Modern Art, whom acquired it and considered Full Moon one of the ten most important works in the Museum’s collection.

Full Moon was so popular with the public that it was kept on permanent display for more than twenty-five years.

In 1956 the Museum of Modern Art sent “Full Moon" to the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris during the “Salute To France Festival of Culture” celebrations. The exhibition, titled "Cinquante ans d’Art aux Etats-Unis" was a real surprise to the public and critics alike, prompting several major articles in L’Oeil magazine by Rosamond Bernier and comments by Leon Kochnitzy of the Sabina Review stating: "It is necessary to recall some of the great spirits of the Renaissance (Leonardo, Durer) to find a point of comparison with the work of Lippold.” The French Minister of Culture referred to Mr. Lippold as the Da Vinci of the XXth Century.

Full Moon was included in the bicentennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York, titled “200 Years of American Art” and recently was exhibited in MoMA’s landmark exhibition titled “Abstract Expressionist, New York”.