Woman Leaning on a Column exemplifies Jacques Lipchitz's exploration of what he referred to as "transparents," that is, the alternation of solid three-dimensional mass with open or negative space, both defined by delicate, linear contours. As a result of its compositional arrangement, the figure seems fluid, continually merging its shape with that of the column. The solid three-dimensional mass and open spaces ebb and flow into each other. The viewer’s eye, challenged to differentiate between the figure and the column, endlessly moves around and through the forms. A pioneer in modern art, Jacques Lipchitz contributed immensely to the ever evolving interpretation of the human form. After his arrival in Paris in 1909, and subsequent schooling at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julien, he earned the respect and admiration of such modern artists as Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, both members of the cubist art movement. However Lipchitz soon became aware of the limitations of cubism, which aimed to reduce and fracture nature into its basic geometric components. Rather, he saw the need to penetrate, and finally to open up, the solid geometric masses that he had been routinely creating. From the mid-1920s on, his work explored both fluid contours and liberated the figure from its traditional imprisonment.