Carving
in Britain
from 1910
to Now
T HE
F I NE ART
S O C I ET Y
A
30 November 2012 to 12 January 2013
Open Monday to Friday 10am–6pm, Saturday 11am–4pm
Closed 24 December to 3 January
TH E F I N E A R T S O C IE T Y
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148 New Bond Street · London W 1S 2JT
+44 (0)20 7629 5116 · [email protected]
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B
C ARVING IN BR ITAIN
C A RV I N G
I N BR I TA I N
F RO M 1 9 1 0
TO N OW
TH E FI N E A R T SOC I E T Y · L ON D ON
M M XI I
Foreword
F. E. McWilliam
Hollow Figure, 1936 (detail)
[cat.28]
Although this is by no means an exhaustive survey of British carving of the last
hundred years – exhibition space and availability of works have dictated that – it is
an introduction to a field that has started to attract renewed interest. We hope that it
will be the first of a series of exhibitions in which we will include the major names
that are missing from this exhibition – Epstein being at the top of the list.
I had the idea for this exhibition about a year ago when I noticed that many
collectors now seem to be more comfortable buying bronzes rather than carvings,
perhaps because bronzes, being produced in editions, are easier to gauge and put
a value on. The very individuality of carvings seems to work against them. When
I mentioned the idea of an exhibition mapping the revival of carving in Britain
since the First World War to our Contemporary Department they said let’s bring
it up to date because it is a living tradition and there are a lot of exciting sculptors
carving today.
Many people have been generous in helping us to locate works and in suggesting
artists and we would especially like to thank Gillian Jason, Stephen Feeke from
Roche Court and Conor Mullan who have all been assiduous in pointing us in the
right direction. Richard Calvocoressi and The Henry Moore Foundation have been
very generous in allowing us to borrow a key 1930s work by Henry Moore. Thanks
also to Ivor Braka, John and Carole Evans, Gerry Farrell of the Sladmore Gallery,
Irving Gross, Chris Kennington, Lida Cardozo-Kindersley, Richard Kindersley, Jon
McKenzie, Michael and Diana Parkin, Amanda and Simon Relph, Judith Russell,
John Scott, Jeffrey Sherwin, Nick and Tania Skeaping, and other lenders who wish to
remain anonymous.
Ben Read, who wrote the introduction to The Fine Art Society’s seminal 1986
exhibition Sculpture in Britain Between the Wars, has kindly done the same for this
exhibition. His depth of knowledge and unequalled understanding of the subject
have added greatly to the project.
As he unfailingly does, Robert Dalrymple has designed a stylish and uncluttered
catalogue. Andy Smart from A.C. Cooper has photographed most of the works.
Gallery Support Group and Bill Bone have crisscrossed the country to bring the
sculptures to the gallery.
To all of the above we offer our thanks and, of course, to all of the contemporary
sculptors for contributing to this ambitious project.
PATRICK BO URN E
November 2012
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5
Introduction
Joseph Cribb (right) in the stonecarver’s
workshop at the Guild of St Joseph and
St Dominic at Ditchling, Sussex.
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C ARVING IN BR ITAIN
It is possible to construct different Histories of Carving in Britain. A classic account,
as featured in the excellent Carving Mountains catalogue of 1998 features the work of
Frank Dobson, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Eric Gill, Barbara Hepworth,
Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and John Skeaping. These certainly constitute the
major figures in the development of Carving as a key element in what is considered
Modernism in British Sculpture of the first part of the 20th century. The process of
carving stone or wood has been defined as almost a talisman of being modern for
sculptors. Many of them described their allegiance to this means of production in no
uncertain terms, expressing pleasure in the physical effort of carving, chisel against
stone, the direct relationship of the materials worked on to the vision they wished
to express.
But it is possible to construct a more elaborate history. For instance, it almost
goes without saying that these ‘Modern’ sculptors were allegedly ‘rediscovering’ the
technique of carving, as if their much derided Victorian colleagues never touched
a chisel themselves and were entirely reliant on assistants to do all the hard labour.
But this is not quite true (though it contains an element of truth without realising it).
One of the crucial elements in a Victorian sculptor’s training was being taken on in
a practising sculptor’s studio precisely as one of these assistants, where one would
train in the production of sculpture by, among other tasks, carving marble for the
senior professional. A number of Victorian sculptors who went on to be major figures
in their own right were, for instance, studio employees of the sculptor William
Behnes, figures such as Henry Weekes, John Henry Foley and Thomas Woolner.
Woolner, we know, was later to employ assistants, his daughter’s official biography
containing a photograph of him with ‘his men’. But we also know that he continued
to carve for himself, either at the stage of preparing the plaster model – he had to
apologise to Lady Trevelyan for the delay in producing his Mother and Child due to
his having developed a painful blister on the thumb of his right hand through use
of a heavy iron chisel which set him back. But he and others would regularly finish
off the carving of their works in marble to produce a personal aesthetic. Sir Francis
Chantrey went out of his way to control the last stages of production of his marble
portraits having evolved a particular way of sandpapering the marble surface against
the grain to make the portrait more life like, almost like living, breathing flesh –
hence his popularity as a portraitist and his leaving an estate worth about £150,000 in
1841 which eventually went to the nation in the form of the Chantrey Bequest. Quite
apart from what happened in practice, we know that late Victorian instruction books
for would-be sculptors such as Roscoe Mullins’s A Primer of Sculpture of 1890 contained
a section entitled ‘Carving’.
Another qualification to the notion of the Modernist Elect being so through their
devotion to Carving is that they were not exclusively devoted to Carving. While this
may be essentially true of Eric Gill (his few cast bronzes and plasters date only from
1912–13), we know that Epstein was busy producing quantities of bronzes at the same
time that he was carving sculpture. He virtually earned his living by modelling,
then casting bronze portraits, at the time that he was producing his classic carvings.
Moore we know began to model for casting in the 1930s, at exactly the time he was
C A RVING IN BRITAIN
7
again producing the domestic carvings that in some critical eyes are his most definitive and valued works. After 1945, his production line of bronzes developed into vast
proportions. His series of studies in clay for the marble UNES C O Reclining Figure of
1957/58 resulted in 22 distinct works at varying scales which were produced in 261
bronze casts. Moore was quite unashamed about his change of medium. He is quoted
on the pleasure of working in clay: ‘I don’t think it matters how a thing is produced
… what counts really is the vision it expresses … it’s the quality of the mind revealed
behind it, rather than the way it’s done … I prepare my plasters for bronzes with a
mixture of modelling and carving … I like clay, it’s wonderful stuff to punch and feel
that the imprint of your fist is left in it.’ He was backed up on this by one of his chief
early defenders, Herbert Read, in 1944, just as Moore was to embark on his age of
bronze: ‘The quarrel between the carvers and the modellers belongs to the sphere of
ethics rather than to that of aesthetics. The cabbage is just as natural as the crystal,
and the natural laws underlying these phenomena are essentially identical. For
this reason we should not make too much of … the different methods of expression
represented by the techniques of modelling and carving. Truth to material is as much
an aesthetic injunction as truth to nature; it is the preference for stone, as against
clay, or for the chisel as against the naked fingers which is an emotional prejudice.
The complete sculptor … will be prepared to use every degree on the scale of solids,
from clay to obsidian, from wood to steel and that … expresses the simple truth of
the matter’.
By the mid 1950s, Hepworth too had begun to follow suit in producing editioned
work in bronze, though not quite to the same level of production. Importantly though,
both continued to work in stone or wood. At this stage in their careers they were able
to employ assistants. But we should be wary of believing that this somehow affected
the ‘originality’ of such work. Sculptors have employed assistants throughout the
history of the art and, as Moore stated, it is fundamentally the question of the vision
that is being aimed at and sculptors have always retained the right to supervise what
their assistants had worked on and themselves often to work on the final product to
ensure it embodied their vision. Modern students, suitably brainwashed in ‘Theory’,
like to quote Walter Benjamin and his pronouncements on the originality of the ‘aura’,
forgetting that this theory was evolved for photography, whereas sculpture has its
completely different ideologies (as any sculptor will tell you).
There are still further qualifications concerning the canonical carvers. Again, if one
goes back to original contemporary sources a different picture emerges. The excellent
critic Kineton Parkes published a two volume text on The Art of Carved Sculpture in 1931.
It covers Western and Eastern Europe as well as America and Japan, and lists a considerable number of carving practitioners from around the world. The designated ‘canonical’ carvers are there: Gill, Epstein, Dobson, Skeaping, Hepworth and Moore. But other
sculptor carvers also feature. Some are described as carving before 1914 – Richard
Garbe from 1903, later to become Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art
around 1925, Ernest Cole from about 1909, Arthur Walker credited with advocating
carving at the Art-Workers Guild before 1914. Then there are later sculptors practising
carving – Alec Miller from about 1920, Alan Durst from 1921, Leon Underwood from
8
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Maurice Lambert with Shoal of Fish, 1934
[cat.27]
George Kennethson [see cats. 39 & 40]
in his studio, c.1955
1924, as well as Eric Kennington, Ursula Edgcumbe and Edna Manley from unspecified dates before 1930. Then there was an important group of sculptors who were
to become strongly identified with the Royal Academy. These included Henry Poole
(R A 1927), Richard Garbe (R A 1936), Gilbert Ledward, carver and modeller, who was
to be Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College from 1925 (R A 1937) and Maurice
Lambert (R A 1952), certainly carving from 1929. But there was another group, eventually to become mainstays of the Academy such as William Reid Dick (R A 1928),
William McMillan (R A 1933) and Charles Wheeler (R A 1940). These in particular have
been identified critically as proto-modernist sculptors in the late 1920s, only to part
company ideologically with their then ostensibly peer moderns Moore and Hepworth
over the advance of the latter towards abstraction in the early 1930s. Skeaping too,
(R A 1959) refused to follow this track, maintaining an unflinching devotion to quality
carving (maybe related to the departure of his wife Hepworth to the false empire of
abstraction as well as their marriage). He too though took to the production of bronze
horses in the 1960s and 1970s.
Writing in 1930 Parkes was to remark that the display of carved work at the
Royal Academy during the last decade had done much to establish the old and
sound carving principle. This is perhaps confirmed when one studies the sculpture
purchases made by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest, whereby works of art
were bought under the auspices of the Royal Academy for the nation. Reid Dick and
Wheeler both had works acquired in 1919 and 1924 respectively, but these were in
bronze. However Alfred Turner’s Psyche, a marble statue was bought in 1922, Richard
Garbe’s Drake in limestone and Arthur George Walker’s Christ at the Whipping Post, an
ivory and marble statuette were both bought in 1925. Henry Poole’s The Little Apple (a
stone group) and Richard Garbe’s Sea Lion in verde di prato were acquired in 1929. This
continued into the 1930s, William McMillan’s The Birth of Venus (stone figure) bought
in 1931, Alfred Turner’s The Hand (stone group) and Ledward’s Monolith in Roman
stone in 1936.
There is a term used called ‘The Lady Macbeth Syndrome’. In Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, Macbeth himself tells his wife the King is arriving tonight. To which his
wife replies (with murder in mind), but when is he leaving? We have seen by now an
endless sequence of sculptors starting to carve, but we maybe need to ask how long
did they continue? Both Moore and Hepworth, as mentioned, carried on carving
till towards the ends of their professional careers. We have seen how carved sculpture became established at the Royal Academy before 1939, but granted that Garbe
survived until 1957, Ledward until 1960, Reid Dick till 1961, Durst till 1970, McMillan
till 1977, it is possible to see how knowledge and experience of carving continued
even while the Heavy Metal Brigade – also known as the Geometry of Fear sculptors
– came into being in the post World War II era. Wheeler lived until 1974, having in
the meantime become the first Sculptor President of the Academy between 1956 and
1966, that is overlapping the moment when Anthony Caro, Phillip King and others
were developing their languages of sculpture in metal, plastics and so on.
There was, though, another younger generation of sculptors in the post-war era
who continued, in their distinctive ways, to carve sculpture. Glyn Williams, born in
INTR ODUC TION
9
Sources
1939, in early years made work in aluminium, resin,
fibreglass and wood. But starting in 1976 he became
increasingly what one can only call an emphatic
stone carver in a variety of stones, including Ancaster,
Portland and Hoptonwood. Another major carver, in
part, was Michael Kenny (1941–1999). He is quoted in
one source as saying ‘stone, like love, can be permanent’; another tribute has referred to his contemplative,
geometric stone works. He did also work in steel, and
produced polychrome wood assemblages incorporating paint and metal. But he played an important role
at the Royal Academy, rising to the senior position of
Treasurer before his relatively early death.
David Nash (born 1945) is similarly emphatic in his
devotion to wood. In his work, this can often be carved,
though at times it seems almost as if there is a move towards the natural forms
of wood taking over. Peter Randall-Page (born 1954) spent some time about 1979
assisting with stone carving at Wells Cathedral. He then gained a scholarship to Italy
to study marble carving, and though he has subsequently experimented with casting,
he has become an emphatic worker in stone, combining natural organic forms with
the geometry detectable in Nature.
There are other sculptors in this exhibition who demonstrate the continued appeal
of carving. The work of Gary Breeze could be considered as in descent ultimately
from the letter cutting of Eric Gill, which was after all what turned him into a carver
of sculpture. David Jones, who had been one of Gill’s closest friends and colleagues,
turned to wood carving to create images for printing. Joseph Cribb trained with
Gill and became a close associate before developing his own style in artwork and
lettering. David Kindersley was a later apprentice and associate of Gill before setting
up his own lettering and decorative sculpture workshop which developed away from
too narrow an imitation of Gill. In this he was to be joined by his wife Lida.
The exhibition includes a variety of present day practitioners in stone, though
very different in character and commitment to the material: Andreas Blank, Jessica
Harrison, Tom Harrisson, Angela Palmer, Alexander Seton, Rob Ward and Julian
Wild. Last but not least of the great letterer and stone worker is the late Ian Hamilton
Finlay. A favourite artist of mine since adolescence, when I discovered his journal Poor
Old Tired Horse in my father’s library, he has stood as a symbol of the Establishment’s
challenger, while working with traditional lettering and carving, among other media.
We know Finlay made use of assistance in his carving activities, but he insisted in
calling these helpers ‘collaborators’, in acknowledgement of their unique contributions. A letter-cutter friend of mine can be seen on the rooftop of Little Sparta during
the siege by the authorities. If only I had been there …
This is only a selection of the considerable literature covering Carving
in this period. Many contain extensive further references. I would like to thank
Dr Joy Sleeman and Dr Patrick Eyres for their help on particular points. B R
M. Harrison, S. Bowness and J. Collins, Carving Mountains – modern stone sculpture
in England 1907–37 (exh. cat.) Cambridge, Kettle’s Yard, 1998
B. Read, Victorian Sculpture, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1982
J. Collins, Eric Gill The Sculpture, Herbert Press, London, 1998
E. Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1986
D. Sylvester and A. Bowness, Henry Moore – Complete Sculpture, (6 vols.), Lund
Humphries, London, 1944f.
P. James (ed.), Henry Moore on sculpture: A collection of the sculptor’s writings and spoken
words, Macdonald, London, 1966
Peter Randall-Page By Another Ocean I I and
By Another Ocean II I, 1998 [cats. 58 & 59]
J. P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, London, 1961
K. Parkes, The Art of Carved Sculpture, vol. 1, Chapman and Hall, London, 1931
B. Read & P. Skipwith, Sculpture in Britain Between The Wars, Fine Art Society,
London, 1986
P. Curtis (ed.), Sculpture in 20th-century Britain, vol. 2, A Guide to Sculptors in the Leeds
Collections, The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2003
High Relief: The Autobiography of Sir Charles Wheeler, Sculptor, Country Life Books,
Feltham, 1968
S. Crellin, The Sculpture of Charles Wheeler, Lund Humphries, London, 2012
W. Lamb (introd.), Exhibition of the Chantrey Collection, Royal Academy of Arts,
London, 1949
Michael Kenny R A in conversation with Robert Williams, Story Institute Gallery,
Lancaster, 1995
C. Gurrey, ‘Transformations of matter: contemporary carving in stone’,
Sculpture Journal, vol. 21.1 (2012), pp.126–133
B EN E DI C T R E AD
University of Leeds
10
INTR ODUC T I O N
C A RVING IN BRITAIN
11
Eric Gill
AR A 1 882–1 94 0
Sculptor, stonemason, draughtsman,
engraver and author. Born in Brighton,
the son of the Rev. A. T. Gill, he
studied at Chichester School of Art
before being articled to the architect
Douglas Caroe, 1900–03. During this
period he attended evening classes
in masonry at the Westminster
Technical Institute and in lettering at
the Central School of Arts and Crafts.
He began working as a letter cutter
in 1903, taking apprentice-assistants
shortly afterwards. Worked as a
sculptor from 1910. His conversion
to Roman Catholicism in 1914 was
very important and he became a
tertiary of the order of St Dominic
five years later. Designed some of
the most famous type-faces of the
twentieth century for the Monotype
Corporation. Settled in Ditchling
1907 and ran the St Dominic’s Press,
until 1924; worked with the Golden
Cockerell Press. Moved to Capel-y-Ffin
in 1924 and then to High Wycombe
in 1928. His most famous commissions include the Stations of the Cross,
Westminster Cathedral, 1913–18; War
Memorials for Leeds University and St
Cuthbert’s Church, Bradford 1920–24;
North, South and East Wind, London
Transport, Headquarters, 55 Broadway,
1928; Prospero and Ariel, Broadcasting
House 1929–31, and carvings for the
Palestine Museum, Jerusalem, 1934
and for the League of Nations Palace,
Geneva, 1935–38. Gill held his first
one-man exhibition at the Chenil
Galleries 1911. He was a prolific writer
and pampleteer on many subjects
from Catholicism and morality to
work, leisure and dress. Exhibited at
the Royal Academy during the last few
years of his life (AR A 1937).
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[ 1 ] Foundation Stone from
The Old Rectory, Finningham,
Suffolk, 1907
Portland stone
24 x 22½ in (61 x 57 cm)
Inscribed ‘This stone was laid 16 May 1907
by Winifred, daughter of John Tudor Frere
of Roydon and Finningham – the means of
rebuilding the rectory were provided by Temple
Frere who was Rector of Finningham 1805–1829
E C Frere Architect’
[ 2] The Bath (Petra Bathing), 1920
Stone with added colour
Height: 8 in (21cm)
Inscribed EG 1920
EXH I BI TED : London, The Fine Art Society, Sculpture in
Britain Between the Wars, 1986 (42)
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
E RIC GI LL
13
[6 ] Headdress, 1928
Beer Stone with added colour
Height: 32 in (81cm)
PR OVEN ANCE : Sir Edward Maufe; private
collection.
E XH IB I TED: London, Goupil Gallery, 1928
(11); London, The Fine Art Society, Sculpture
in Britain Between the Wars, 1986 (45); London,
Royal Academy, Modern British Sculpture,
2011 (7)
LI T ER AT UR E: Joseph Thorp, Eric Gill,
Jonathan Cape, 1929, p.19, ill. pl.28; The Sketch,
21 March 1928, p.547; Penelope Curtis and
Keith Wilson (ed.), Modern British Sculpture,
London 2011, p.58, illus.
O N LO A N FR OM A P RIVATE
CO LLE C TI ON
Cushion Capitals and Piscina from
Eric Gill’s Chapel at Ditchling:
[3] Cushion Capital 1, c.1921
Eric Gill Workshop
Hopton Wood stone
14⅜ x 12¼ in (36.5 x 31 cm)
PR OV EN ANCE: From the Chapel of the
Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, Ditchling.
[4] Cushion Capital 2, c.1921
Eric Gill Workshop
Hopton Wood stone
4⅜ x 12¼ in (36.5 x 31 cm)
These cushion capitals – two of the
four in the exhibition are illustrated
here – come from Eric Gill’s Chapel at
Ditchling, and were sited on either side
of the walls at the approach to the altar.
They were set so that only the three
decorative sides were visible above the
wooden pillars. They were removed
from the Chapel when the Guild was
disbanded in 1989.
[5] Piscina, c.1921
Not illustrated
22½ x 13¼ x 8¾ in (57.1 x 33.6 x 22.3 cm)
Hornton stone (in three sections)
P R OV EN A N C E : From the Chapel of St
Joseph and St Dominic, Ditchling.
This Piscina was set into the right hand
wall of the chapel at Ditchling near the
altar. It was used during the Guild services in the chapel. There was also a holy
water stoup opposite in the left hand
wall. Both were removed when the Guild
disbanded in 1989.
PR OV EN ANCE: From the Chapel of the
Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, Ditchling.
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E RIC GILL
15
Louis Richard Garbe
R A 1 87 6 –1 9 57
Sculptor in various materials of figures
and animals. Born in London, the son
of a maker of ivory and tortoiseshell
objects, to whom he was apprenticed.
Then studied at Central School of Arts
and Crafts and the Royal Academy
Schools. Became an instructor in
sculpture at the Central School, 1901–29,
then Professor of sculpture at the Royal
College of Art, 1929–46. During the 1930s
worked with Doulton’s on the making of
a number of pieces of ceramic sculpture.
Garbe was a fellow of the R BS, began
exhibiting at the R A from 1908 and
was elected R A in 1936. Also exhibited
R MS, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and
Royal Glasgow Institute of the fine Arts.
Monumental work includes some on
the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
The Tate Gallery and many provincial galleries hold his work. Lived at
Westcott, Surrey.
[7] The Red Shawl, 1925
Japanese Ash with terracotta and black
lacquered finish
54 x 17½ x 9 in (137 x 44.5 x 23cm)
EXHI BIT E D: London, Royal Academy, 1925
(1336); London, The Fine Art Society, Sculpture
in Britain Between the Wars, 1986 (38)
[8] Mermaid Mirror with five
carved panels, c.1908
Ivory, wood and mirror glass
20½ x 13½ in (52.1 x 34.3 cm)
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LOUIS RICHA RD G A R BE
17
Henri Gaudier–Brzeska
1 8 9 1–1 9 1 5
French Sculptor and draughtsman.
Born St Jean-de-Braye, near Orleans,
France. Visited London for two months
in 1906 on travelling scholarship and
returned 1907 on a second scholarship to spend two years in Bristol and
Cardiff studying English business
methods. 1909 another bursary sent
him to Nuremberg and Munich. His
interest in art and in drawing had been
growing all the while and in 1911 he
left France for London with Sophie
Brzeska, a Polish woman twenty years
his senior whom he had met in a library
and whose name he adopted. By 1912 he
had made contact with several names
in artistic and literary London. He had
met Jacob Epstein and begun carving
but it was not until 1913 that he gave up
his job at a clerk with a shipping broker
in order to devote himself wholly to art.
His association with Vorticisim, and in
particular the ideas of T.E. Hulme, developed his respect for the machine and its
principles into his work, but his innate
feeling for animals and for the human
form suggests that this influence was
not wholly assimilated. He was killed in
action in 1915 and a memorial exhibition was held at the Leicester Galleries,
London, three years later.
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[9] Crouching Faun, 1913
Bath stone
12 x 10 in (30.4 x 25.3 cm)
P R OVENA N C E : Mrs B. Mayor, by
whom purchased in 1914; by descent to
Lady Rothschild; by descent; Christie’s,
16 September 2007 (142); Ivor Braka Ltd.
EX H IB ITE D : London, Alpine Club Gallery,
Grafton Group, January 1914, no. 47; London,
Leicester Galleries, A Memorial Exhibition of the
Work of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, May–June 1918
(94); London, J. and E. Bumpus, Henri GaudierBrzeska. An Exhibition of Drawings and Statues,
April–May 1931 (39); Birmingham Museum
and Art Gallery, on loan until 2007; London,
Royal Academy, Wild Thing, 2009–10 (80)
L IT ER AT U R E : E. Pound, Gaudier Brzeska.
A Memoir, London and New York, 1916, p.161,
no. 24, pl.9, as A Faun, crouching; H.S. Ede,
A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska, London, 1930, p.198;
H. Brodzky, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, London,
1932, pp.176, 182; R. Cole, Burning to Speak: The
Life and Art of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Oxford,
1978, p.100, no.48, as ‘Faun Crouching’;
E. Silber, Gaudier-Brzeska Life and Art, London,
1996, pp.42, 98, 121, 130, 265, no.62, pl.80;
Richard Cork, Wild Thing, London, 2009, p.142,
ill. p.145 (cat.80)
ON LOAN FROM IVOR BR AK A
HENRI G AU DIER– BR Z E SK A
19
Eric Kennington
R A 1 888 –1 9 6 0
Sculptor, draughtsman and painter.
Born London, the son of the artist T.B.
Kennington, he studied at Lambeth
School of Art and the City and Guilds
School of Art. Official War Artist
1916–19, and again 1940–43. Sculpted
the Memorial to the 24th Division,
Battersea Park, 1924, and the British
Memorial at Soissons, France. Other
commissions include brick carvings on the Shakespeare Memorial
Theatre, Stratford, 1930; head of T.E.
Lawrence, St Paul’s Cathedral, and the
recumbent effigy of Lawrence in the
Church of St Martin, Wareham, 1939.
He illustrated Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of
Wisdom. Exhibited at the Royal Academy
from 1908 (A R A 1951, R A 1959). Died
at Reading.
[1 0] Pelicans
Green marble
Height: 4 in (10.2 cm)
PR OV ENANCE: The artist’s Estate.
[1 1 ] Baby’s Head
Hopton Wood stone
Height: 5 in (12.7 cm)
PR OV ENANCE: The artist’s Estate.
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C A RVING IN B R ITA IN
E RIC KE NNINGTON
21
Frank Dobson
CB E R A 1 88 6–1 963
Sculptor in stone, terracotta and bronze
and painter. Born London, the son of
an illustrator. Trained at Leyton School
of Art 1900–02 and then in the studio
of sculptor Sir William ReynoldsStephens, 1902–04, before going to the
Hospitalfields Art Institute, Arbroath,
1906–10 and the City and Guilds School,
Lambeth, 1910–12. First one-man show,
chiefly of drawings, at the Chenil
Galleries 1914. Exhibited with Group x
1920. Contributed to many international
exhibitions and showed at the Royal
Academy from 1933 (AR A 1942, R A 1953).
Professor of Sculpture at the Royal
College of Art 1946–53. Awarded CBE
1953. Principal Commissions include
the façade of Hay’s Wharf, Southwark,
1930, and London Pride for the Festival of
Britain 1951.
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C A RVING IN BR ITAIN
[ 1 2] The Buskers, 1920
Wood carving on a semi circular base,
Height: 14 in (35.5 cm)
P R OVENA N C E : A leaving present from
Dobson to his studio assistant, Rupert
Sheppard; thence by family descent.
This carving of two figures, one of
them playing the concertina relates to
Dobson’s Concertina Man (1920) now
lost. It would appear likely that Dobson,
an admirer of the sculpture of Ossip
Zadkine, found inspiration for the
subject in Zadkine’s Le Joueur d’accordeon,
1918. In 1922 he visited Zadkine’s studio
in Paris.
FR ANK DOBSON
23
David Jones
SWE CH 1 8 9 5 –1 974
Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and
writer, born in Brockley, Kent, son of a
Welsh printer. Studied at Camberwell
School of Art, 1909–15. Served on the
Western Front with the Royal Welch
Fusiliers. From 1919–21 Jones studied
under Bernard Meninsky and Walter
Bayes at Westminster School of Art,
then joined Eric Gill’s Guild of St
Joseph and St Dominic, in Sussex,
1922–4, also working with Gill and
Wales. Began to learn wood-engraving;
in 1925 the Golden Cockerel Press
published Gulliver’s Travels with his
wood-engravings and in 1927 The Chester
Play of the Deluge. 1927 joint exhibition
held at St George’s Gallery with Eric
Gill. 1928–33 showed with the 7 & 5
Society. 1928 began to write his poem
about the First World War, entitled In
Parenthesis (published 1937). 1942 started
to make inscriptions. 1932 and 1947
suffered nervous breakdowns. 1947
moved to Harrow and stayed there until
his death. 1952 another long poem, The
Anathemata, was published. 1974 created
CH. 1981 retrospective exhibition at the
Tate Gallery.
[1 3] Church on the Rock, c.1921
1¾ x 1½ in (4.5 x 3.8 cm)
Boxwood printing block
[14] Abraham Lincoln, 1921
4½ x 3¼ x 1 in (11.5 x 8.3 x 2.5 cm)
Boxwood printing block
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D AVID JONE S
25
Leon Underwood
1 8 9 0–1 97 5
Sculptor, printmaker, painter, designer,
writer and teacher, born in London.
Studied from 1907–10 at Regent Street
Polytechnic School of Art, then a scholarship took him to the Royal College
of Art 1910–13. After the war, during
which he served in the camouflage
section, he went to the Slade 1919–20.
In 1921 he opened Brook Green School
and started on two years of constant
printmaking. He taught at the Royal
College of Art from 1920, but in 1923
he resigned and went to Paris and
Iceland on a Rome prize grant. By then
he had had first one-man exhibition
at Chenil Galleries, 1922. The 1920s
were busy for Underwood: he travelled extensively, notably in Mexico,
studying Mayan and Aztec sculpture,
and in Spain studying cave paintings.
Reopened his drawing school in 1931
and founded the magazine The Island,
to which Henry Moore and C.R.W.
Nevinson contributed. The 1930s saw
intense sculpture activity, and in 1934
he published Art for Heaven’s Sake. In
World War I I he served in the Civil
Defence Camouflage, 1939–42. After
the war he visited West Africa, and
wrote several books on its art. From
the 1950s he was very busy with sculpture again. The Kaplan Gallery held an
exhibition of Underwood’s sculpture
in 1961. There was a full-scale retrospective at The Minories, Colchester,
in 1969; the exhibition Mexico and
After look place at National Museum
of Wales, Cardiff, in 1979; and the
Redfern Gallery organized a show in
2004. Public collections including the
Tate Gallery, the Ashmolean Museum,
The Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art and Leeds City Art Gallery
hold his work.
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C ARVING IN B R ITAIN
[ 1 5] Untitled (Foetus), 1924–5
P R OV EN A N C E : private collection.
Chalk
4¾ x 7½ x 2¾ in (12 x 19 x 7 cm)
E X H IB I T E D: London, Kaplan Gallery, An
Exhibition of Sculpture by Leon Underwood,
1961 (64); Colchester, The Minories, Leon
Underwood: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1969
(112); London, Royal Academy, Modern British
Sculpture, 2011 (34, illus. p.80)
P R OVEN AN C E: given to Cosmo Clark by
Blair Hughes-Stanton; the Sherwin Collection.
ON LOAN FROM THE SHERWIN
COLLECTION
[ 1 6] Nucleus, c.1923
Carrara marble
10 x 11 x 10 in (26 x 28 x 26 cm)
L I T E R ATU R E : Ben Whitworth, The Sculpture
of Leon Underwood, The Henry Moore
Foundation 2000, cat.10, pp.19–20, 122
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
LE ON UNDE RWOOD
27
Henry Moore
OM CH 1 8 9 8–1 98 6
‘Henry Moore is one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated artists.
Renowned for his powerful and often
monumental forms, he is recognised as one
of the key figures to have redefined British
sculpture in the modern period. He also
dedicated much of his career to increasing
understanding and enjoyment of the arts,
particularly sculpture. Born in Castleford,
Yorkshire, where his father was a miner, the
young Moore’s passion for the art form that
would inspire his life and work was ignited
at primary school on hearing a story about
the great sculptor, Michelangelo. Moore’s
education continued at the Leeds School of
Art, where a sculpture department was set
up to accommodate him: he was the sole
student. Later, Moore won a scholarship
to the Royal College of Art in London to
study sculpture, and he went on to teach
sculpture there and at Chelsea School of
Art before leaving to pursue his already
blossoming career as an artist. Major public
commissions, exhibitions and awards
followed, including the International
Sculpture prize at the Venice Biennale in
1948, and retrospectives at the Tate Gallery
spanning three decades. His sculptures
have subsequently been exhibited worldwide, including major multi-venue
tours in the United States. Moore spoke
eloquently about his work and ideas. He
once remarked that “all good art demands
an effort from the observer” but that the
observer, in turn, should “demand that it
extends his experiences of life”. Following
his death in 1986, Moore left behind one of
the most diverse single artist collections,
encompassing drawings, graphics, textiles
and sculpture, now cared for by The Henry
Moore Foundation.’
From Henry Moore at Perry Green,
Scala, 2011. Image reproduced by permission of
The Henry Moore Foundation.
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[ 17] Composition, 1931
Cumberland alabaster, 14¾ x 16⅜ x 10⅝ in
(37.5 x 41.5 x 27 cm)
L IT E R ATU R E : David Sylvester (ed.),
Henry Moore: Complete Sculpture 1921–48,
London, Lund Humphries, 1988, p.7, no.102
and illus. p.77
ON LOAN FROM THE HENRY MOORE
FOUNDATION
HE NRY MOORE
29
John Skeaping
1 9 0 1–1 9 8 0
Sculptor, draughtsman and teacher, born
at South Woodford, Essex. Skeaping –
son of Kenneth Mathieson Skeaping,
the painter – studied at Goldsmiths’
College School of Art, the Central
School of Arts and Crafts 1917–19 and
the Royal Academy Schools, 1919–20.
In 1924 he married Barbara Hepworth,
marriage dissolved 1933, and won the
Rome Prize. First one-man show was
held, with Barbara Hepworth, at Alex
Reid and Lefevre, Glasgow, in 1928. He
was a member of the London Group,
1928–34, and of the 7 & 5 Society, 1932,
and became an official war artist during
World War I I. After the War he lived
in Mexico for a time, also in France,
and exhibited widely abroad. He first
exhibited at the R A in 1922 and was
elected R A in 1960. Taught sculpture
at the Royal College of Art from 1948
and was Professor of Sculpture 1953–9.
Among his books were Animal Drawing
1936, How to Draw Horses 1941, and The Big
Tree of Mexico 1952. Skeaping’s autobiography, Drawn from Life, was published in
1977. His work is notable for its depiction of animals, and in its simplicity of
line and elemental qualities resembling
the prehistoric cave drawings found in
France and Spain. He lived in France and
at Chagford, Devon.
[ 1 8] The Pig, 1933
[19] Duck, c.1934
Cornish Serpentine, on the original wooden
base
Height: 3¾ in (9.5 cm)
Cornish Serpentine
Height: 6 in (15.2 cm)
P R OVENA N C E : George Eumorfopoulos
1933–9; private collection.
L I T E R ATU R E : Jonathan Blackwood,
The Sculpture of John Skeaping, Lund
Humphries, Surrey, 2011, p.103 (cat.152,
as lost).
EX H IB ITE D : London, Arthur Tooth and
Sons, 1934 (11)
P R OV EN A N C E : private collection.
L IT ER AT U R E : Jonathan Blackwood,
The Sculpture of John Skeaping, Surrey, 2011,
p.100 (cat. 139)
ON LOAN FROM THE ARTIST’S ESTATE
30
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JOH N SKE AP ING
31
[2 0] Female Torso, 1938
[ 2 1 ] Crucifix, 1953–4
Pinkado Wood
Height: 25 in (63.5cm)
Cedar Wood (burnt)
Height: 90 in (228.6cm)
EXHI BIT E D: London, Arts Council, Sculpture
in the Home, 1946 (41); London, Arthur
Ackermann and Son, John Skeaping 1901–80: A
Retrospective, 1991 (62)
P R OVENA N C E : The artist’s Estate.
LITE R AT URE : Jonathan Blackwood, The
Sculpture of John Skeaping, Surrey, 2011, p.106
(cat. 165)
ON LOAN FROM THE ARTIST ’S ESTATE
32
C ARVING IN B R ITA IN
EX H IB ITE D : London, Royal Academy, 1955
L IT ER AT U R E : Jonathan Blackwood, The
Sculpture of John Skeaping, Surrey, 2011, p.93, pl.11
(cat. 215)
Made in response to the death of the
artist’s son Paul in Malaya on 13 February
1953 whilst flying a Mosquito in the R AF.
JOH N SKE AP ING
33
Barbara Hepworth
DB E 1 9 0 3 –1 97 5
Sculptor of formal and abstract figures
in bronze, stone and wood. Born in
Wakefield, Yorkshire, Jocelyn Barbara
Hepworth studied at Leeds School of
Art, then from 1921 at the Royal College
of Art, from 1924–5 living in Italy as
the result of a West Riding Travelling
Scholarship. Married the sculptor John
Skeaping in 1924, marriage dissolved
1933, and exhibited with him. In Rome
had learned the Italian technique of
marble carving. In the early 1930s her
interest in abstract sculpture developed, encouraged by several developments. She had met the painter Ben
Nicholson in 1931 – marrying him
shortly afterwards, marriage dissolved
1951 – and with him visited the studios
of Arp, Brancusi, Braque, Picasso and
Gabo. Hepworth in the 1930s became
a member of several forward-looking
groups, such as 7 & 5 Society, Unit
One and Abstraction-Creation. In 1939
Hepworth moved to St Ives, Cornwall,
where she became an influential
member of the artistic community,
being a founder-member of the Penwith
Society in 1949. In 1947–8 she had
made her notable series of drawings
of operating theatre, and in 1949 a first
one-man show of drawings at Durlacher
Bros, in New York, extended her
growing reputation. Two works were
commissioned for the Festival of Britain
in 1951 and she won second prize in The
Unknown Political Prisoner competition two years later. Her position as
Britain’s premier female sculptor was
consolidated with several retrospective
exhibitions, including Tate Liverpool
and Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada,
1994–5, Robert Sandelson, 2001, and
centenary shows at New Art Centre at
East Winterslow, Yorkshire Sculpture
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C A RVING IN B R ITAIN
Park at West Bretton, Wakefield Art
Gallery and Tate St Ives, all 2003, and
having work purchased by major international galleries. She became Dame
Barbara Hepworth in 1965. Died in a fire
in her studio in St Ives, where a Barbara
Hepworth Museum was opened in 1976.
[ 2 2] Two Forms, 1934–5
white alabaster, 4½ x 11⅝ x 5⅞ in
(11.5 x 29 x 15 cm)
EX H IB ITE D : Leeds, Temple Newsam, 1943,
cat.85; Wakefield and touring, 1944, cat.12;
Whitechapel, British Sculpture in the Twentieth
Century: Part 1, 1981, cat.165; I VA M Valencia,
Paris 1930. Arte Abstracto, Arte Concreto, Cercle
et Carré, 1990, cat.260; Tate Liverpool / Yale /
Toronto, retrospective, 1994–5, cat.19; Jeu de
Paume, Paris, Un Siècle de Sculpture Anglaise,
1996, [no cat. nos.], reprod. in colour in the
catalogue p.93; Annely Juda, The Thirties.
Influences on Abstract Art in Britain, 1998, cat.15;
Tate St Ives, Antony Gormley: Some of the Facts,
2001; Wolfsburg and Toulouse, From Blast to
Frieze, 2002–3, plate 41; Nancy, Musée des
Beaux-Arts, retrospective, 2006, cat.12
L IT ER AT U R E : J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth,
with a catalogue of sculptures by Alan Bowness,
London (Lund Humphries) and Neuchâtel
(Editions du Griffon), 1961 (B H65)
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
B A R B A R A H E P WO RT H
35
Elizabeth Spurr
1 9 1 2–1 9 87
Sculptor, printmaker and painter who
studied at the Central School of Arts and
Crafts, where John Skeaping taught. She
was one, and ‘by far the most talented’,
of several private pupils taken by the
sculptor, even helping him, as he recalls
in his autobiography Drawn from Life, by
collecting money when he busked with
his accordion. Spurr’s early sculptures
had Cubist overtones, stylised in the
manner of Skeaping and Barbara
Hepworth. Her carving, in wood and
stone, which often included animals, is
notable for its beautiful finish. Exhibited
at the R A twice and with the Redfern
Gallery. Although married with children
she went on working, but did not often
exhibit. Died in London. Retrospective
shows at England & Co, London.
36
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[ 2 3] Cat
Ebony on a mahogany base
Height: 4½ in (11.5 cm)
EX H IB ITE D : London, Redfern Gallery, 1935
[ 24] Cat
Mahogany
Height: 5¼ in (13.3cm)
ELIZ A BETH S P URR
37
Joyce Bidder
FR BS R M S 1 9 0 6–1 999
Sculptor in a variety of materials,
notably of figures and animals, born
in London. She studied at Wimbledon
School of Art with Stanley Nicholson
Babb, becoming one of his best pupils. In
1933 met Daisy Borne, whom she taught
to carve. They worked in a studio in
southwest London for many years and
shared a liking for elegant, conservative sculpture tinged with modernism.
A fellow of the Royal Society of British
Sculptors, and member of the Royal
Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors
and Engravers, Bidder exhibited at
the Royal Academy 1931–56. Her work
was included in The Fine Art Society’s
Sculpture in Britain Between the Wars, 1986,
and she shared a show at the gallery
with Borne in 1987.
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C ARVING IN BR ITAIN
[ 2 5] The Croziers of Spring, 1934
Palombino Marble
Height: 20⅜ in (51.75 cm)
Signed and dated, on right face of base, JOYCE
BI D D E R 1934
EX H IB ITE D: London, Royal Academy, 1948
JOYCE BIDDER
39
Maurice Lambert
R A F R BS 1 9 0 1 –1 964
Sculptor in stone and bronze,
draughtsman and teacher, born in
Paris. His father was the Australian
painter George Lambert, his brother the
composer Constant Lambert. Educated
in London, Lambert was apprenticed,
1918–23, with the sculptor Derwent
Wood. Although he worked on Wood’s
Machine Gun Corps monument on
Hyde Park Corner, Lambert’s own sculpture, while remaining largely figurative,
took a much more modern turn. He
was prolific, between 1925–34 exhibiting nearly 150 works, having his first
solo exhibition at the Claridge Gallery
in 1927. His fourth and final one-man
show in his lifetime was at Alex Reid &
Lefevre in 1934, and the Belgrave Gallery
gave him a posthumous exhibition in
1988. Lambert was a member of NS and
a fellow of R BS and was elected R A
in 1952. From 1905–8 he was a master
of sculpture at the Royal Academy
Schools. Commissions include work
in the liners Queen Mary and Queen
Elizabeth; fountains for Basildon; work
in the Presidential Palace, Baghdad;
Viscount Nuffield for Guy’s Hospital, 1949;
carvings for the Associated Electrical
Industrial building, Grosvenor Place;
and sculpture for the entrance to the
Time & Life building in Bruton Street.
[ 26] Kneeling Torso, 1927
Alabaster
18¾ in (47.5 cm)
EX H IB ITE D : London, The Fine Art Society,
Spring, 2000 (59)
ON LOAN FROM THE SHERWIN
COLLECTION
[ 27] Shoal of Fish, c.1934
Yew with Verde de Prato marble base
11½ x 24 x 12 in (29 x 61 x 30.5 cm)
40
C ARVING IN B R ITAIN
P R OV EN A N C E : Lefevre; Dame Rebecca
West; The Belgrave Gallery; private collection.
E X H IB I T E D: London, Alex Reid & Lefevre,
New Sculpture by Maurice Lambert, 1934, no.1;
London, The Belgrave Gallery, Maurice
Lambert 1901–1964, 1988, no.17, ill.
L I T E R ATU R E : Vanessa Nicolson, The
Sculpture of Maurice Lambert, London, 2002,
pp.31, 67 (cat.119)
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
M AURIC E L A MBERT
41
F. E. McWilliam
1 9 0 9–1 9 92
Sculptor in wood, stone and bronze,
born in Banbridge, County Down.
He studied drawing at the Slade,
1928–31, then worked in Paris for a
year, beginning sculpture in 1933. He
came to prominence with his exhibits
in the Surrealist section of the Artists
International exhibition 1937, and had
his first one-man show at the London
Gallery 1939. After five years service
with the Royal Air Force, partly in the
Far East as an intelligence officer, he
resumed sculpture, teaching at the
Slade, 1947–68. Joined the London Group
in 1949, R B A in 1950 and was elected
an A R A in 1959, but resigned four years
later. Among his many commissions
were The Four Seasons for the Festival
of Britain 1951; Princess Macha for the
Attnagelvin Hospital, Londonderry, 1957;
and Hampstead Figure at Swiss Cottage,
London, 1964. Retrospectives were held
at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland,
1981, and the Tate Gallery, 1989.
Number seven of a group of eight
mulberry figures, which were the
outcome of a year of intensive work for
McWilliam in 1988.
‘The unexpected supply of mulberry
wood that the great storm of 1987 made
suddenly available had a dynamic
effect upon McWilliam, who has
always been inspired by what chance
may bring. Their faces and forms are
determined as much by the complexly
variegated grain and structure of the
wood itself as by the equally complex
and unpredictable imagination of the
artist. The cracks, which have continued
to proliferate during and after the
carving of these pieces, and which are
inevitable in unseasoned timber, have
been characteristically welcomed by
the artist, and incorporated as a linear
element in the total design. McWilliam
has responded with great sculptural
vigour to the fantastic rhythms and
turbulences, complications and
irregularities of the wood, adding
another series of disquietening and
ambiguous images to what Bryan
Robertson has called his “poetic
repertoire of fantastic biomorphic
shapes, anatomies and personages”.’
Mel Gooding, F.E. McWilliam Sculpture
1932–1989, London, 1989, p.67
[2 8] Hollow Figure, 1936
Beech
Height: 43½ in (110cm)
EXHI BIT E D: London, Tate Gallery, F. E.
McWilliam Sculpture 1932–1989, 1989 (14)
LITE R AT URE : Mel Gooding, F. E. McWilliam
Sculpture 1932–1989, London, 1989, illus. p.26,
p.40
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
[2 9] Mulberry Figure Seven, 1988
Mulberry wood
Height: 24 in (61cm)
EXHI BIT E D: London, Tate Gallery, F.E.
McWilliam Sculpture 1932–1989, 1989 (84)
LITE R AT URE : Mel Gooding, F.E. McWilliam
Sculpture 1932–1989, London, 1989, illus. p.71
42
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F. E . MCWILLIA M
43
Ursula Edgcumbe
1 9 0 0–1 9 85
Sculptor and painter. Born Sandy,
Bedfordshire. Worked in the studio
of James Havard Thomas prior to
studying under him at the Slade, where
she won the Scholarship for Sculpture
1918. After leaving the Slade, 1921, she
gave up modelling in clay for direct
carving, and worked as an architectural
carver, especially for George Kennedy.
Joined the National Society of Painters,
Sculptors, Engravers and Potters at
its foundation in 1929 and exhibited
there regularly. In 1940, through lack of
commissions and being out of sympathy
with current trends, she deliberately
abandoned sculpture and concentrated
on painting. One-man exhibition Leger
Galleries 1936. Commissions include the
great granite War Memorial at Zennor,
Cornwall.
[3 0] The Finding of Moses, 1921
Not illustrated
Hopton Wood stone relief
Height: 30 in (76.2cm)
Inscribed with initials and dated 1921,
lower left
EXHI BIT E D: London, The Fine Art Society,
Spring, 2000 (52).
[3 1 ] Portland Bird, 1934
Portland Stone
Height: 14 in (35cm)
EXHI BIT E D: London, The Fine Art Society,
Sculpture in Britain Between the Wars, 1986 (30)
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
[32] Seated Female Figure, 1931
Hopton Wood stone
Height: 17¾ in (45.1cm)
PR OV ENANCE: The artist; private collection
44
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UR SUL A E DGCUMBE
45
Anthony Gibbons Grinling
MC M B E 1 8 9 6 –1 982
Born Stanmore. Educated at Harrow,
where he won the art prize. After the
War he went to Taormina, Sicily, to
recuperate from the effects of being
gassed, and studied carving and modelling with Lipari, 1919–20. After returning
to England worked for the family firm,
Gilbey’s, but continued with sculpture, often working closely with Serge
Chermayeff. Commissions include
garden statues for Queen Mary’s Dolls’
House 1924; bas-relief for the Cambridge
Theatre 1930; room for tubular steel
sculpture and furniture for Whiteley’s
1934. First one-man exhibition at Tooth’s
1934. Exhibited at Royal Academy from
1946. Died Bristol.
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[ 3 3] Reclining Nude
Polished Kauri Pine
Height: 35 in (89 cm)
ON LOAN FROM THE ARTIST’S FAMILY
[ 34] The Jivers, c.1957
Mahogany
Height: 22 in (55.8 cm)
ON LOAN FROM THE ARTIST’S FAMILY
AN THO NY GI BBONS GRINLING
47
Robert Adams
1 9 17–1 9 84
Sculptor of abstract and monumental
works, designer and lithographer. Born
in Northampton, Adams studied at the
School of Art there in 1933, although
later, from 1938 to 1944, he had to make
his living at various jobs while he
studied part-time. At first influenced by
Henry Moore, he later turned to nonfigurative work, notably that of Brancusi
and Gonzalez. He taught sculpture at
the Central School of Arts and Crafts
1949–60, and exhibited widely internationally, including at a number of
International Biennales in the 1950s.
His work is in a series of important
collections around the world, including
the Tate Gallery, Arts Council, British
Council and the Museum of Modern
Art, New York. A retrospective was
held at Northampton Art Gallery, 1971,
another in 2003 at Gimpel Fils, which
had represented him from 1947 until
his death. Lived at Great Maplestead,
Halstead, Essex.
48
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[ 35] Standing Figure
Walnut
Height: 24 in (60.9 cm)
ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
R OBE RT AD AMS
49
Herbert Joseph Cribb
1 8 92–1 9 67
Sculptor, draughtsman and letter-cutter,
son of Herbert William Cribb and
brother of Lawrence Cribb, both artists.
From 1906–13 was apprenticed to Eric
Gill, settling in Ditchling, Sussex. He
was sent by Gill to cut the inscription
on Epstein’s monument to Oscar Wilde
at Père Lachaise Cemetary in Paris; after
Epstein’s death in 1959 he was also to cut
the inscription on his tomb too. After
World War I service he became almost
a founder-member of the Guild of St
Joseph and St Dominic and for many
years was in charge of the stonemason’s
shop. Cribb did a lot of work for the
Brighton architectural practice of John
Denman and worked on the tabernacle
of London church of St Simon Stock.
Cheltenham and Hove Museums and
Art Galleries hold his work. In 1960 he
carved a memorial plaque for Gill’s birthplace at 32 Hamilton Road, Brighton.
50
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[ 3 6] Pieta, c.1950
Stone
Height: 20 in (51cm)
P R OVENA N C E : From the stonemason
Kenneth Eager; with Gillian Jason 2001;
private collection.
H ERBE RT JOSE P H CRIBB
51
Gertrude Hermes
R A 1 9 0 1 –1 9 83
Sculptor in wood, stone and clay,
and maker of wood-engravings and
linocuts. Born in Bromley, Kent to
German parents. Educated at Belmont
School, Bickley, Beckenham Art School
(where she met Rodin) and the Leon
Underwood School, Brook Green. In
1926 she married the wood-engraver
Blair Hughes-Stanton, who ran the
School while Underwood was in New
York 1925–27.
After early success as a woodengraver, despite a flood in their
Hammersmith basement flat by the
Thames which destroyed most of her
early work, she was commissioned to
make a bronze of A.P. Herbert and to
produce sculpture, a swan fountain,
for the New Shakespeare Memorial
Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. She
was elected a member of the London
Group in 1935 and designed a massive
window for the British Pavilion at the
Paris International Exhibition in 1937.
The same year she was commissioned
to make sculpture for Rivercourt House,
Hammersmith, now part of Latymer
School. She evacuated with her children
to Canada in 1940, where she had an
exhibition at the Montreal Museum
of Fine Art. Her first solo exhibition in
England was held at the Towner Art
Gallery, Eastbourne in 1949, and then
toured. A retrospective was mounted
at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1967
by Bryan Robertson, and another show,
with Elizabeth Vellacott, was held at
The Minories, Colchester the following
year. A full retrospective of her work was
mounted at the Royal Academy of Arts
in 1981, when the Tate accepted Baby II ,
1932, from the Chantrey Bequest.
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[ 37] Chrysalis II, 1959–62
Willow
48 x 18 in (123 x 46 cm)
P R OVENAN C E : The artist’s estate.
EX H IB ITE D: London Group 1962; Folkstone,
New Metropole Art Centre Gertrude Hermes
A R A, 1964; London, Royal Academy of
Arts 1966 (507); London, Whitechapel Art
Gallery Gertrude Hermes: Bronzes and Carvings,
Drawings, Wood engravings, Wood and Lino Block
Cuts 1924–1967, 1967; Colchester, The Minories
Art Gallery Gertrude Hermes AR A: Sculpture and
Drawings, 1968; Richmond, Surrey, Southwell
Brown Gallery Works by Gertrude Hermes R A,
1974; London, Royal Academy of Arts Gertrude
Hermes R A, 1981; London, Redfern Gallery, 1996
L IT ER AT U R E : ‘Contemporary British
Sculptors’, Commemorative Art, February 1966;
Naomi Mitchison, Gertrude Hermes: Bronzes
and Carvings, Drawings, Wood engravings, Wood
and Lino Block Cuts 1924–1967, London 1967
(illustrated); Harpers & Queen, October 1981;
Jane Hill, The Sculpture of Gertrude Hermes,
Farnham 2011 pp.74–75, 135
GERTRU DE H E R ME S
53
Sven Berlin
1 9 1 1–2 0 0 0
Sculptor, painter, draughtsman and
writer who led a bohemian, often
controversial life. Born in London of
an English mother and Swedish father,
Berlin was apprenticed as a mechanical
engineer, in 1928 enrolled at Beckenham
School of Art, but decided instead to
pursue a career as an adagio dancer in
music-halls. In 1934 and 1938 pursued art
studies at Camborne-Redruth Schools of
Art in Cornwall as well as other subjects
such as poetry, philosophy and comparative religion. Had first one-man show at
Camborne Community Centre in 1939,
by which time he had begun sculpting.
Although a conscientious objector at
outset of World War I I, he eventually
joined the Army. Settled in St Ives, and
was co-founder of Crypt Group in 1946
and a founder-member of Penwith
Society in 1949, the year his book Alfred
Wallis, Primitive, was published. Other
books included The Dark Monarch: A
Portrait from Within, about St Ives and
its inhabitants; it led to several libel
actions. His autobiography A Coat of
Many Colours, 1994, contains chapters
on fellow-artists in St Ives; second
volume, Virgo in Exile, appeared in 1996.
After a few moves, partly by horse and
gypsy wagon, Berlin eventually settled
at Wimborne, Dorset. He was regular
exhibitor of work sometimes extremely
strong, sometimes of variable quality.
The Belgrave Gallery held an important
exhibition in 1989. The Victoria and
Albert Museum, Tate Gallery, National
Library of Scotland and other British and
foreign collections hold his work.
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[ 38] The Hawk
Devon Porphyry
19 x 3 x 3½ in (48.3 x 7.6 x 9 cm)
P R OVENA N C E : Property of a public
institution, acquired directly from the artist
in 1974, de-accessioned 2012.
SVE N BER LIN
55
George Kennethson
1 9 1 0–1 9 94
Sculptor. Born in Richmond, Surrey,
as Arthur George MacKenzie, later
using the professional moniker George
Kennethson. He initially studied
painting at Royal Academy Schools,
turning to sculpture in 1937. Kennethson
carved stone directly, using only simple
sculptural drawings, relying on the
nature of the stone to influence the
finished work. The subject matter of
his early carvings while underlined by
symbolism, concentrate on birds, plants,
and human form influenced by GaudierBrzeska and Brancusi. Later as a result
of time he spent in Purbeck, Dorset he
developed themes exploring abstracted
wave patterns that incorporate a hardedged machine like quality.
He was an infrequent exhibitor but
had retrospectives at the University
of Birmingham in 1974; Kettle’s Yard
1975; New Arts Centre 1988 and Pallant
House 1993.
In the mid-1950s he moved with
his wife, the painter Eileen Guthrie,
to a disused brewery in Oundle,
Northamptonshire. This gave
Kennethson in his own words, the space
to develop, balancing ‘the claims of
abstract values and natural perceptions’.
The Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art, Edinburgh, and Kettle’s
Yard, Cambridge, hold examples of his
work. Conor Mullan
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C ARVING IN B R ITAIN
[ 39] Hill Forms, c.1965
[4 0] Girl Arranging Hair, early 1970s
Ketton stone
Height: 12 in (30.5 cm)
Clipsham Stone
Height: 29 in (73.7 cm)
P R OVENA N C E : The artist’s Estate.
P R OV EN A N C E : The artist’s Estate.
David Kindersley
1 9 1 5–1 9 9 5
Lettercutter, sculptor, typeface designer
and teacher. He was born in Codicote,
Hertfordshire, and was apprenticed to
Eric Gill, 1933–6, his stockbroker father
paying a small indemnity. He developed
into Gill’s trusted assistant, working
alongside him on such important
commissions of the period as Bentall’s
store in Kingston, St John’s College,
Oxford and Dorset House. In 1936, he set
up on his own as a letter cutter and, for
a while, a sculptor. In 1945 he moved to
Cambridge, establishing his first fullyfledged lettercutting workshop at Dales
Barn in the village of Barton. This was a
time of stylistic liberation for Kindersley,
in which he broke away from Gill in his
decorative embellishments of cutting,
in his growing predilection for lettering
on slate and the combination of lettering
with heraldry. But in the organisation
of the workshop, and his aims for it,
the sense of dynastic inheritance was
strong. The survival of a workshop
culture in a post-war climate of industrial expansion preoccupied Kindersley
through the 1950s and 1960s when he
was a leading figure in the Designer
Craftsman Society and the Crafts
Council of Great Britain of which he
eventually became Chairman. He moved
his workshop from Barton to the 14th
century Chesterton Tower in 1967 and
then, ten years later, to the converted
infants’ school in Victoria Road, the
premises the Cardozo Kindersley
Workshop still occupies.
[4 1] Keats’s Lamia
[4 2] Angel Bust, c.1936
[4 3] British Film Institute oval
Woodhouse yellow magnesium limestone
29 x 19 in (73.7 x 48.3 cm)
Portland stone
Height: 18 in (45.7cm)
ON LOAN FROM THE CARDOZO
KINDERSLEY WORKSHOP
ON LOAN FROM THE CARDOZO
KINDERSLEY WORKSHOP
Not illustrated
Portland stone with red letters
9 x 11 in (22.9 x 27.9 cm)
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C ARVING IN BR ITAIN
ON LOAN FROM THE CARDOZO
KINDERSLEY WORKSHOP
D AVID K INDER SLEY
59
Gerald Laing
1 9 3 6–20 1 1
Sculptor, painter and printmaker. Born
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland.
He attended the Royal Military
Academy, Sandhurst, 1953–5, then after
a short Army career attended St Martin’s
School of Art, 1960–4. Lived in New York
for five years, and artist-in-residence at
Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies,
Colorado, in 1966. Initially Laing was
a Pop artist but by the late-1960s was
known as a sculptor of minimalist
forms. In 1969 he acquired Kinkell
Castle, on the Black Isle, in Scotland and
restored it, in 1977 setting up a substantial bronze foundry there to handle his
own work. By this time he had rejected
abstraction for figuration, returning to
the mainstream, but continually experimenting within it. Laing’s teaching
posts included visiting professor at the
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
1976–7; and Professor of Sculpture
at Colombia University, New York,
1986–7. In 1978–80 he was on the art
committee of the Scottish Arts Council,
in 1987 being appointed commissioner
on the Royal Commission for Fine Art
in Scotland.
Laing showed widely internationally, having a one-man show at Laing
Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1963,
another at I C A, 1964, then the first of a
string at Richard Feigen Gallery, New
York, 1964, and with Richard Feigen in
Chicago, 1965. The Cincinnati Centre
for Contemporary Art gave Laing a
retrospective in 1971, others following at
Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry, 1983, and
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1993.
The Fine Art Society held two major
shows of Laing’s sculpture in 1999 and
2008. In 1995 Laing was commissioned
to make eight dragons for Bank tube
station, and in 1996 four bronze rugby
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players for Twickenham Stadium. He is
represented in the Tate Gallery, National
Galleries of Scotland, M OM A, New
York and the Victoria & Albert Museum,
amongst other public and private collections in Britain and abroad. Laing set up
the The Gerald Laing Art Foundation to
promote the understanding, appreciation and practise of sculpture.
[44] Woman with Long Hair III,
1974
Carved oak
10¼ x 10 x 10 in (26 x 25½ x 25½ cm)
ON LOAN FROM THE ARTIST’S ESTATE
[45] Architectural Reclining
Figure I V , 1975
Not illustrated
Brazilian walnut
15 x 12½ x 8½ in (38.1 x 31.8 x 21.6 cm)
ON LOAN FROM THE ARTIST’S ESTATE
The artist translated both these carvings
into bronze. The Fine Art Society have
one of each for sale, by generous permission of the artist’s estate.
GE R A LD L AING
61
Ian Hamilton Finlay
1 92 5–2 0 0 6
Scottish sculptor, graphic artist and
poet. He briefly attended Glasgow
School of Art and first made his reputation as a writer, publishing short
stories and plays in the 1950s. In 1961
he founded the Wild Hawthorn Press
with Jessie McGuffie and within a few
years had established himself internationally as Britain’s foremost concrete
poet. His publications also played an
important role in the initial dissemination of his work as a visual artist. As a
sculptor, he worked collaboratively in
a wide range of materials, having his
designs executed as stone-carvings, as
constructed objects and even in the form
of neon lighting. In 1966 Finlay and his
wife, Sue, moved to the hillside farm of
Stonypath, south-west of Edinburgh,
and began to transform the surrounding
acres into a unique garden, which he
named Little Sparta. He revived the
traditional notion of the poet’s garden,
arranging ponds, trees and vegetation
to provide a responsive environment
for sundials, inscriptions, columns and
garden temples. As the proponent of a
rigorous classicism and as the defender
of Little Sparta against the intrusions of
local bureaucracy, he insisted on the role
of the artist as a moralist who comments
sharply on cultural affairs. The esteem
won by Finlay’s artistic stance and style
is attested by many important largescale projects undertaken throughout
the world. The ‘Sacred Grove’, created
between 1980 and 1982 at the heart
of the Kröller-Müller Sculpture Park,
Otterlo, is one of the most outstanding
examples of Finlay’s work outside
Little Sparta.
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[46] Untitled (Aircraft carrier),
1973
Limestone
5¼ in (13.3 cm) long
P R OVENA N C E : from the collection of the
late Professor John Golding.
IAN HA MILTON FINL AY
63
Richard Kindersley
B. 1 9 39
Letter-cutter, sculptor and lecturer who
studied at Cambridge School of Art and
in his father David Kindersley’s workshop. In 1970 he set up his own studio in
London. Among his sculpture commissions are works for Exeter University,
British Telecom, Sainsbury’s, Lloyd’s
Register of Shipping and Night and Day,
two 3m tall Portland stone carvings for
Broadbent House, Grosvenor Street,
London. Most recently he has worked
on the Bomber Command Memorial at
Hyde Park Corner. He has won seven
major brick-carving competitions and
was awarded the Royal Society of Arts’
Art for Architecture Award.
Kindersley has title lettering schemes
for London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the
Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Thames
at Dartford; the New Crown Court
buildings in Liverpool, Leeds, Swindon,
Newcastle and Luton; University buildings in Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and
Kent; designs for theatres and major
shopping centres; Bank of Ireland and
Barclay’s Bank International; Penguin
Books and Liberty’s of London; the
Public Records Office in Kew; inscriptions for many of the great churches and
cathedrals around the country including
St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey; and
a carving to mark and celebrate the 150
Anniversary of the founding of the V&A.
He has lectured widely on both the
historical aspects of architectural
lettering and the present development
within the context of his own work.
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[47] Inscription: Philip Larkin
Welsh slate
11¾ x 39 x 1 in (30 x 99 x 2.5 cm)
The quotation is from Larkin’s poem
‘This is the first thing’:
This is the first thing
I have understood:
Time is the echo of an axe
Within a wood.
[48] Apprentice Alphabet, 1959
Not illustrated
Hopton wood stone with polychrome
9 x 23 x 1 1/2 in (23 x 58.5 x 4 cm)
IAN HA MILTON FIN L AY
65
David Thompson
B. 1 9 39
David Thompson was born in Leeds. He
studied at Carlisle College of Art from
1956 to 1960, followed by three years as a
post-graduate student at the Slade where
he concentrated on stone carving.
For the twenty years or so after his
departure from the Slade his sculptural language was abstraction, often
combining several stone elements closely
interlocked. He had three solo exhibitions at Roland, Browse and Delbanco
between 1964 and 1972, and represented
Britain in Sculpture Symposia in Austria
and the former Yugoslavia.
After the Slade, Thompson was
a lecturer and tutor in sculpture at
Canterbury College of Art, but took early
retirement as a senior lecturer in 1989.
Throughout this period he continued
to show his carvings in solo and group
exhibitions in the U K, Europe, the Far
East and North America.
In the late 1980s, Thompson’s work
underwent a radical change. Like a
handful of British sculptors around
this time, he returned to the human
figure as his subject, going completely
against the mainstream of contemporary sculpture. In his own words: “At
art college I had been continuously
engaged in scrutinising the figure
through drawing, modelling and carving.
However I had never directly used this
vast pool of knowledge in my sculpture. A strong urge compelled me to
shift my focus back to this all powerful,
elemental subject.”
Thompson has exhibited regularly at
the R A, but in recent years arthritis has
curtailed his carving activities. Many
carvers suffer from this after a lifetime
of punishing physical activity. The Sibyl
(illustrated) is probably his last substantial stone carving.
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[49] The Sibyl
Clipsham stone
19 ¼ x 18 x 17¾ in (48.9 x 45.7 x 45.1 cm)
[5 0] Girl Holding Her Foot
Not illustrated
Hopton Wood stone
12¼ x 14¼ x 14½ in (31.1 x 36.2 x 36.8 cm)
P R OVENA N C E : Peter and Vera Coker.
D AVI D THOMP SON
67
Jilly Sutton
ARBS B.1 948
Jilly Sutton trained as a sculptor at
Exeter College of Art. Her career developed in Nigeria, where the art forms
that flourish there (particularly carvings
and textiles) fired her imagination. She
researched and worked with indigo
dye both in Africa and back home in
England. Now, her inspiration comes
from the ancient trees and woodland
that surround her studio and the home
she shares with her architect husband
on the banks of the River Dart in Devon.
Using locally fallen or felled timber,
Sutton carves large heads and figures,
sandblasting and liming to give them
their unique, grainy character. Although
her work is mainly figurative, often with
an overriding sense of serenity, abstraction also features in her oeuvre.
In her own words: “The warmth of
wood, the quality of the grain, and the
life embodied in each and every tree,
together with a veneration of the head as
a sculptural form … this is my passion.
However, working with the vagaries of
the organic, still living, nature of the
material, and pushing the boundaries of
its plasticity, is the constant challenge.’
Jilly Sutton’s sculptures have been
exhibited internationally and are in
public and private collections in the U K
and abroad. Her carved wooden portrait
of the former Poet Laureate Andrew
Motion is in the National Portrait
Gallery’s permanent collection.
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[5 1 ] The Architect
Lime Wood and pigment
60 x 41 x 52 in (142 x 104 x 132 cm)
[52] Wistful Wood
Not illustrated
Lime Wood and pigment on slate
24½ x 18¾ x 14½ (62.2 x 47.6 x 36.8 cm)
JI LLY SUTTON
69
Rob Ward
B. 1 949
Since graduating in the late 1960s, Rob
Ward has produced a substantial body of
work that, aside from the sculptures for
which he is best known, also includes
painting and drawing. Ward’s work
displays a preoccupation with abstracted
organic forms, clean lines and the relationships between objects. Evolving over
several decades of practice, Ward has
created something of a shorthand for
balance and space.
His works often display feats of
engineering and technical expertise in
such an understated way as to be almost
invisible. Many of his sculptures are
commissions and his often gargantuan
pieces are situated in public spaces all
over the world. However, Ward is also
adept at producing works on a more
intimate scale and it is here where much
of his compositional exactitude and wit
are displayed.
Ward has exhibited regularly on
an internationally level since the
early 1970s and has been included in
numerous important group exhibitions including: 21st Century British
Sculpture, Guggenheim Museum in
Venice, Italy (2002); 18@ 108 Bronze, Royal
British Society of Sculptors, London
(2006); Concepts for New Sculpture at
Goodwood (2001); Athena Art Awards,
Barbican Art Gallery, London (1986);
and the Australian Sculpture Triennale,
Melbourne (1981). He is one of the first
artists of his generation to penetrate
the Asian art market and his work can
be seen in the permanent collections of
every important sculpture park in the
region of China and South East Asia.
[5 3] Flask and Seed, 2007
Pink Granite
39⅜ x 7⅞ x 7⅞ in (100 x 20 x 20 cm)
[54] Tool, 2007
White Marble and Pink Granite
19⅝ x 39⅜ x 11⅞ in (50 x 100 x 30 cm)
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R OB WARD
71
Emily Young
FR BS B.1 9 5 1
Emily Young is an internationally
renowned stone carver, creating large
and complex pieces by hand. Her
presiding value is to show the natural
beauty constructed in the physical
history of each piece of stone. Allied
with traditional carving skills, a rare and
poetic presence, both contemporary and
ancient, is created.
Her work is in collections in both
the public and private sectors across
the globe including The Imperial War
Museum, London; The Whitworth Art
Gallery, Manchester; Paternoster Square,
St Paul’s Cathedral, London; Salisbury
Cathedral and La Défense, Paris. In
2012, her Maremma Head I V was selected
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for the exhibition Messerschmidt and
Modernity at the J. Paul Getty Museum in
Los Angeles, and in 2013 she will mount
an exhibition in Venice during the
Biennale, where the tranquil surroundings of the Madonna dell’Orto church
will provide an atmospheric backdrop to
a body of work that Young is executing
specifically for the site.
Emily Young is represented exclusively by The Fine Art Society.
[5 5] Head of a Forest Boy, 2012
Maremma stone
10¼ x 19¼ x 14⅝ in (26 x 49 x 37 cm)
[5 6 ] Mountain Stone, 2012
Onyx
26½ x 13½ x 24⅞ in (67 x 34 x 63 cm)
E MILY YOUNG
73
Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley
B. 1 9 54
Lida Lopes Cardozo, who was born in
Leiden, The Netherlands, studied at
the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts,
The Hague, 1972–6. She moved to
England in 1976, where she studied
in the Cambridge workshop of David
Kindersley. Their professional collaborations include the memorial to the Abbots
of St Albans carved in Welsh slate on
the ground in front of the altar at the
Abbey, the hand cut and hand written
inscriptions for the Ruskin Gallery in
Sheffield, and the British Library gates.
They were married in 1986, and formed
a partnership as The Cardozo Kindersley
Workshop which continued after her
husband’s death.
Lida now runs the Workshop with
her second husband Graham Beck. It
usually consists of two lettercutters
and three apprentices, and teaching is
a vital part of workshop life. Lida and
her assistants make letters in stone,
glass, metal, paper and wood, including
headstones, commemorative plaques,
heraldic carving, sundials, typefaces,
bookplates and lettering cut straight
into buildings. They cut with hammer
and chisel and avoid using machines.
They design, cut, paint, gild and prefer
to fix all their own work.
In furthering the cause of good
lettering, Lida has composed handwriting workbooks published by Oxford
University Press and has held workshops in the U K and on the continent.
In 2000 she received the National Stone
Federation’s Award for Craftmanship,
and the prize for designing the
Millennium Dome Celebration medal.
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[57] Hasten Slowly, c.2007
Welsh slate, with gilded lettering
12 x 18 x 1 in (30.5 x 45.7 x 2.5 cm)
LIDA LOPES CARDOZO KINDERSLEY
75
Peter Randall–Page
B. 1 9 54
Peter Randall-Page studied sculpture
at Bath Academy of Art, 1973–1977,
and then, after graduating, worked
with the sculptor Barry Flanagan
and in 1979 with Robert Baker on the
conservation of Wells Cathedral. In
1980 as a Winston Churchill Fellow
he visited Carrara quarries in Italy
to study carving. Back in London, he
was a visiting lecturer at Brighton
Polytechnic, 1982–9, moving eventually to Drewsteignton, Devon,
where he established a workshop
to handle major pieces of sculpture
with associates.
During the past twenty-five years
Randall-Page has established an international reputation as a draughtsman
and stone carver, and his work is
held in public and private collections
throughout the world including Japan,
Australia, US A, Turkey, Germany and
the Netherlands. A selection of his
public sculptures can be found in many
urban and rural locations throughout
the U K including London, Edinburgh,
Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and
Bristol and his work is in the permanent collections of the Tate Gallery and
the British Museum amongst others.
Randall-Page’s practice has always
been informed and inspired by the
study of natural phenomena and its
subjective impact on our emotions.
In recent years his work has become
increasingly concerned with the
underlying principles determining
growth and the forms it produces. In
his words, ‘geometry is the theme on
which nature plays her infinite variations, fundamental mathematical principle become a kind of pattern book
from which nature constructs the most
complex and sophisticated structures’.
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In 1992 a major retrospective of his
work opened at Leeds City Art Gallery
and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which
toured, and solo shows include the
Natural History Museum, London in
2003. In 1999, Randall-Page was awarded
an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the
University of Plymouth, an Honorary
Doctorate of Letters from York St John
University in 2009 and an Honorary
Doctorate of Letters from Exeter
University in 2010; from 2002 to 2005
he was an Associate Research Fellow at
Dartington College of Arts.
[5 8] By Another Ocean II, 1998
Kilkenny limestone
25½ x 37½ x 26 in (65 x 95 x 66 cm)
[59] By Another Ocean III, 1998
Kilkenny limestone
24½ x 38⅜ x 24½ in (62 x 97 x 62 cm)
See illustration on page 10
P ET ER R A ND ALL – PAGE
77
Angela Palmer
B.1957
Angela Palmer is a sculptor and installation artist. Born in Scotland and based in
Oxford, she studied at the Ruskin School
of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford and
the Royal College of Art in London.
Palmer incorporates history, archaeology and the natural sciences in her
artistic practice, creating works which
speak of these disciplines in a direct
manner but that also have a distinct and
poetic visual appeal.
In Carving in Britain, Palmer takes a
socio-cultural approach and presents
teak that has been carved by natural
processes. The teak is imbued with a rich
history: it was salvaged off County Cork
in Ireland last year from a sunken wreck
Pegu which was torpedoed in July, 1917
by a German U-boat. Pegu was operated
by the British and Burmese Steamship
Navigation Company and was en route
from Rangoon to Liverpool when it
was attacked off Galley Head. Palmer
has carefully selected and presented
the teak, highlighting the elaborate and
complex systems that have caused it to
be extensively carved by nature.
Palmer’s previous installation was
The Ghost Forest, a group of 10 mighty
rainforest tree stumps with their roots
intact, which she brought from a logged
virgin rainforest in Africa and exhibited
them in Trafalgar Square, Copenhagen,
Oxford and Wales. She also ‘maps’ the
human body through C T and M R I
scans; her glass sculpture of an Egyptian
child mummy is in the permanent
collection of the Ashmolean Museum.
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[60] Road from Mandalay (1), 2012
Teak, 18½ x 19½ x 4 in
(47 x 49.5 x 10.2 cm)
A NGE L A PA LME R
79
Tim Pomeroy
B. 1 9 57
Tim Pomeroy, who lives and works
on the Isle of Arran, attended Gray’s
School of Art in Aberdeen, 1976–81. His
sculpture is very diverse in its subject
and style, material and technique. He
carves in marble, slate, granite and
sandstone from his island home, and
his drawings and etchings are part of
the overal process. He is interested in
the usefulness and beauty of manmade objects, both from neolithic
and bronze age archaeology and from
contemporary life.
Tim has had several public commissions, notably in Provand’s Lordship
Glasgow in 1995 and the Beatson
Gartnavel Hospital in 2008. His most
recent commissions are in St Andrews
Roman Catholic Cathedral, Glasgow,
where he carved a new baptismal font
in 2011. In the same year, he carved a
monumental bas-relief on the façade of
Carnoustie Golf Links Trust Pro-Centre
and concurrently made a huge bronze
illustrating the Tree of Life for Cawdor
Castle Gardens, Nairnshire. His
work features in the collections of,
amongst others, Strathclyde University,
Leeds City Art Gallery, The Duke of
Devonshire, Gray’s School of Art, Lady
Cawdor and the Archdiocese of Glasgow.
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[61 ] String II, 2007
Carrara marble
Height: 19¾ in (50.2 cm)
T IM POMER OY
81
Nic Fiddian–Green
B. 1 9 6 3
Nic Fiddian-Green is best known as
an equestrian sculptor. Through sheer
determination and passion for his
subject he has stayed true to the form of
the horse’s head for 25 years. The spirit
and power of this noble animal, both
servant and master to man, has been the
artist’s long-term obsession. No animal
is so deeply embedded in our culture
and history; the very earliest example
of art ever discovered in Britain was a
horse’s head carved into a bone from
10,000 years B C.
Fiddian-Green, who was born in
Hampshire, graduated from Wimbledon
School of Art with a B A in Sculpture,
and went on to attain his M A at St
Martins School of Art, where he also
took a Diploma in Advanced Lost Wax
Casting. He held his first exhibition in
1986, and has since been in demand by
galleries and collectors alike: his work
is now shown regularly in London, New
York and Australia. He is well known
for carrying out major site-specific
commissions; the summer of 2010
saw his 30-foot sculpture of the Horse
Drinking installed at Marble Arch where
it is still on display. In the same year
Turning House was installed to enormous
acclaim at Glyndebourne Opera House
in Sussex, and Horses Head in the Wind at
the Treasury Holdings in Barrow Street,
Dublin. The largest work of Fiddian
Green’s career so far, the 35 foot high
Artemis, was installed on the Trundle Hill
on the downs overlooking Goodwood
House and racecourse.
Nic Fiddian-Green has carved Still
Water specifically for this exhibition. He
is represented by the Sladmore Gallery.
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[62] Still Water, 2012
South American Soapstone
6¾ in (17.1 cm) on an English oak plinth
NIC FIDDIAN –G R E EN
83
Gary Breeze
B. 1 9 6 6
Gary Breeze is one of the most inventive letterers working in Britain today,
combining traditional training and skills
with more experimental and contemporary subjects and themes.
Since his training at the Norwich
School of Art, Gary Breeze set up his
letter cutting workshop in Diss, Norfolk
and has received commissions for
prestigious memorials including The
Soviet War memorial at The Imperial
War Museum, and the memorial to
the victims of the Bali Bombings at
Clive Steps, St James’ Park. He has
recently completed work for the new
Scottish Parliament building, and the
new archaeological department of
Southampton University.
Most of Gary Breeze’s work springs
from his interest in language, particularly vernacular language and the
process of translation. Working closely
with classicist Colin Sydenham, Breeze
began translating popular songs into
Latin as a way of challenging our
assumptions about the content of
inscriptions, and highlighting the way
that sentiments remain the same across
time and cultural space.
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[63] My Mama done tol’ me, 2004
Limestone
14¼ x 17¾ x 2½ in (36.2 x 45.1 x 6.4 cm)
G A RY BRE EZE
85
Gavin Turk
B. 1 9 67
Gavin Turk rose to prominence in the
early 1990s during the so-called ‘Young
British Artists’ phenomenon. Turk’s
work gained him a reputation as an
artist who questioned the nature and
values of identity, pop culture, and art
itself. In 1991 Turk was denied his M A
certificate from the Royal College of
Art for his degree show presentation,
which consisted of an empty white
studio with a blue English Heritage
plaque installed, which simply bore the
inscription Borough of Kensington / G AV IN
TU RK / Sculptor / Worked Here 1989–1991.
Beginning his career paradoxically
with his own demise and posthumous
recognition set the tone for his subsequent work, which dealt with the cult
of personality and the construction of
artistic myth.
Turk’s installations and sculptures
deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the
‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’
of a work, Turk’s engagement with
this modernist, avant-garde debate
stretches back to the ready-mades of
Marcel Duchamp. In the early 1990s
Turk explored issues of authorship
and identity by making a number of
works based on his own signature that
comment on the value that the artist’s
name confers onto a work. He has
also made a number of photographic
and sculptural self-portraits that often
involve some degree of disguise. Turk’s
work has been included in many
seminal exhibitions including the latest
groundbreaking P O P LI F E show at Tate
Modern (2009) as well as the Venice
Biennale (2001), the 46th International
Istanbul Biennial (1999), Material Culture,
Hayward Gallery, London (1998), and
Sensation: Young British Artists from the
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Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts,
Saatchi Collection, London (1995). Recent
exhibitions have included: Gavin Turk:
The Negotiation of Purpose, G E M Museum
for Contemporary Art, The Hague, The
Netherlands; Gavin Turk: Last Year in
Eggenburg (The Paradise Show), Schloss
Eggenburg, Graz; Gavin Turk: et in arcadia
ego, New Art Centre Sculpture Park &
Gallery, Salisbury; and Gavin Turk Oeuvre,
Tate Britain Sculpture Court Display,
London.
[64] Desert Island Scenario, 2003
Mahogany
Height: 40½ in (103cm)
G AVIN T URK
87
Julian Wild
B. 1 97 3
Julian Wild’s work explores the potential
of functional materials and construction
systems and the expressive possibilities
of a single line or a series of units. Each
work is an investigation into the semiotics of the material that he is using. He
works in a diverse range of materials
from clay and glass through to stainless
steel. The physical possibilities of each
material are pushed to its limit in the
objects that he makes.
Julian graduated from Kingston
University in 1995. In 2005 he was
short-listed for the Jerwood Sculpture
Prize, and is the current recipient of The
Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea
/ Chelsea Arts Club Trust Studio Bursary.
He has recently been commissioned
to make public sculptures for Millfield
School, Cass Sculpture Foundation,
Crest Nicholson, Wyeth Europa,
Schroders Investment Management,
Radley College Oxford, The Jerwood
Sculpture Park and Sculpture in the
Parklands in Ireland. His work is
in several collections including the
Jerwood Sculpture Park, Fidelity, V22,
Deslasan, Cass Sculpture Foundation,
Wyeth Europa and Schroders
Investment Management.
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[65] Origin, 2012
Carved fruit tree, resin and paint
Height: 74¾ in (190 cm)
JULIA N WI LD
89
Andreas Blank
B. 1 97 6
Andreas Blank, who was born in
Germany, studied at the Staatliche
Akademie der Bildenden Künste
Karlsruhe with Professor Harald
Klingelhoeller before completing his M A
at The Royal College of Art in London in
2009. He lives and works in London.
Blank aims to create trompe l’oeils
in stone. His sculptures are deceptively
casual in approach rather than dramatic,
however his finely carved arrangements
are precisely staged and after closer
inspection one discovers that light bulbs,
transport boxes and plastic bags are
made of marble, alabaster or sand stone.
He aims to bring together the abstract
and the realistic, the conceptual as well
as the technical. He sources stones from
quarries from all over the world: marble,
alabaster, or porphyry are carefully
exploited to serve a conceptual as well
as practical function. Blank questions
the obvious and transforms traditional
ideals and values of the ordinary
and present.
Blank has been a finalist in New
Sensations 2009, The Land Securities
Studio Award and the Conran
Foundation Award. He has exhibited
in both Germany and London and has
works in the permanent collection of
London’s Groucho Club.
[66] Still Life 13, 2012
Alabaster, marble and serpentinite
10½ x 13¾ x 9 in (26.7 x 35 x 23 cm)
[67] Untitled, 2012
Serpentinite
15¾ x 12½ x 2¾ in (40 x 31.8 x 7 cm)
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C ARVING IN B R ITAIN
A NDR E A S BL A NK
91
Alexander Seton
B.197 7
Australian sculptor Alexander Seton, who is based
in London, works in marble and synthetic stone,
creating works of a startling contemporary nature
using the traditional and ancient processes of
stone carving. Seton’s work combines laborious
and admirable craftsmanship of a rare quality with
a twenty-first century wit and self-consciousness.
Seton seemingly makes the implausible very
possible as testified to in his majestic beanbags,
toffee apples, concrete barriers and exercise balls.
Key works include an inflatable beach toy that is
in the process of deflating. The synthetic material, the squishy status and the cartoon like whale
shape are all completely at odds with the normal
parameters for marble sculptures. Seton has also
created an entire series of carved life size t-shirts
displaying modern slogans that draw attention to
the preoccupation for self expression via clothing.
By his choice of material, and his mastery of his
craft, Seton elevates his banal subjects into the
canon of art history. More than this though, the
artist examines the notion of monumentalisation
in art and its validity.
Alexander Seton lives and works in Sydney.
He graduated from the College of Fine Arts,
University of New South Wales in 1998. He has
exhibited in numerous major sculpture exhibitions over the years, including Sculpture by
the Sea four times since 2002, the McClelland
Sculpture Survey 2005, The Helen Lempriere
Sculpture Award 2006 and New Social
Commentaries 2006. The artist has had a number
of solo shows throughout Australia and participated in several group shows such as Flaming
Youth at the Orange Regional Gallery and international sculpture symposiums such as the 2007
Hanyu International Sculpture Cup, in Shenzhen
in China.
[6 8] Skill, Strength, Courage, Health,
Wisdom, Speed , 2009
Bianca marble with resin inlay
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf
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C A RVING IN B R ITAIN
ALE X A NDE R SE TON
93
Jessica Harrison
B. 1 9 82
Born in St Bees,Cumbria, Jessica moved
to Scotland in 2000 to study sculpture
at Edinburgh College of Art, going on
to a practice-based PhD in sculpture in
2007 funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council.
Jessica’s work considers the relationship between interior and exterior
spaces of the body, beyond the binary
tradition of inside and outside. The
process begins with a small ball of clay
in the palm of her hand, fashioned by
touch, rather than sight. From this point
the shape is scaled up using exact measurements from clay in to stone, from
hand in to body. Although the sensation
of sculptural practice inform her work,
her exploration of carving is unlike that
of other sculptors. Harrison’s aims are
not to harness the unique quality of each
stone but to amplify the significance of
touch in the interface between body and
space, arresting sensation and movement in stone.
In 2012 Jessica was the invited artist
at the Visual Art Scotland exhibition at
the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
and in 2011 exhibited her work as part
of the exhibition Industrial Aesthetics:
environmental influences on recent art from
Scotland at Hunter College in New York
alongside artists including Douglas
Gordon and Martin Creed. In 2010 her
work was selected for the exhibition
U KYA showcasing the best of young
British artists as well as being part of the
Milestone exhibition which toured the
UK from Yorkshire Sculpture Park, to
the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney and Cass
Sculpture Park in Sussex.
Jessica has been awarded the Kinross
scholarship from the Royal Scottish
Academy in 2005, the prestigious John
Watson Prize from the Scottish National
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Gallery of Modern Art and in 2008 was
the first artist awarded the position of
International Lithography Artist-inResidence at the Black Church Print
studios in Dublin.
She has exhibited at The Musee Halle
Saint Pierre, Paris (2011); International
Print Biennale, Newcastle, (2011); Aando
Fine Art, Berlin (2011); The New Art
Gallery Walsall (2010); Royal Scottish
Academy, Edinburgh (2007); and
Bloomberg Space, London (2007).
Jessica’s work is part of several public
collections including Pallant House
Gallery in Chichester, Fingal County
Public Art Collection in Ireland, The
New Art Gallery Walsall in Walsall,
and the Royal Scottish Academy in
Edinburgh as well as numerous private
collections. Conor Mullan
[69] Untitled 1, 2012
Illustrated opposite title page
Kilkenny limestone
21¾ x 21¾ x 21¾ in (55 x 55 x 55 cm)
[7 0] Untitled 3, 2012
Kilkenny limestone
28¼ x 15¾ x 23¼ in (72 x 40 x 59 cm)
J E SSIC A HARRI SON
95
Published by The Fine Art Society
for the exhibition Carving in Britain from 1910 to
Now held at 148 New Bond Street, London W 1,
from 3o November 2012 to 12 January 2013
Catalogue compiled by Cordelia Bourne
Catalogue © The Fine Art Society 2012
Introduction © Benedict Read 2012
I SB N 1 9 0 7 0 52 2 1 7
Principal photography by Andy Smart,
A.C. Cooper Ltd
Designed and typeset in Elena by Dalrymple
Printed in Belgium by DeckersSnoeck
Front cover: Gertrude Hermes Chrysalis I I,
1959–62 (detail), cat.37
Frontispiece: Jessica Harrison Untitled 1, 2012,
cat.69
Back cover: Andreas Blank Untitled 2012, cat.65
Inside covers: Tim Pomeroy String I I, 2007
(detail) cat.61
T HE F IN E A RT S O C I ET Y
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T H E F I NE A RT SOC IE T Y
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