In the early 1950s Nivola began to make a series of cut sheet figures, the Ancestors, with a technique partly suggested by the sculpture of his friend Alexander Calder. The first known example, the large female form exhibited here, was made in Sardinia during a trip in 1952. Subsequently, the artist returned to the theme several times, creating among other things in 1957-58 a group of figures as decoration of a department store, Carr's Department Store in West Orange, New Jersey. Placed on the facade of the building, the metal sheets are associated by Nivola with the clamor and animation of commerce and modern life.