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Dawn, a floozy-looking blonde yawning furiously at the new day, was the first piece of sculpture he ever exhibited, but 25 years passed before he could afford to have it cast in bronze. Yet Robus never lost his humor. He himself would refer to his graceful sculpture of a girl washing her hair as Soap in Her Eyes. He did Three Caryatids Without a Portico, a Water Carrier with a pitcher for a head ("Just a jughead, I guess"), and "a vase that takes its head off." Hugo Robus' figures have a fluid charm that makes them bend to unheard melodies and swirl to soundless rhythms. But only in the last five years have these figures brought him enough to live on, and the Whitney show is the biggest one he has ever had. "My wife," he muses, "would have loved this show."