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Lot 128
6/8, signed with monogram, and stamped with the Susse Foundry Paris stamp, patinated bronze24cm high (9.5in high)Footnote: The subject of Girl is Reg Butler's student Rosemary Young, a sculptor who became his muse, companion, colleague and second wife. In this early example of his female studies in bronze, Young is depicted holding a modelling knife.
Lot 95
signed, patinated bronzethe bronze 44cm high x 38cm wide (17.24in x 15in)Footnote: Grizel Niven was a pupil of Henry Moore in the 1930s and began direct carving under his influence. Later in her career she won acclaim for her sculpture for the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial, and after hearing Kate Mosse talking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about setting up a Women’s Prize for Fiction, she telephoned and offered a cast of a sculpture of her as a prize. Her younger brother was the actor David Niven.
Lot 256
painted steel246cm high, 101cm wide, 40.5cm deep (96.8in high, 39.75in wide, 15.9in deep)Footnote: The present work is unique. Polarity (1968) was exhibited at Robert Adams's one-man show at Gimpel Fils in 1968. The works shown were sculptures in steel and several were on a large scale. This was a milestone in his practice, before turning to smaller scale bronze and marble works, perhaps a reflection on the new wave of British sculptors of the ‘New Generation’, including Philip King and Sir Anthony Caro, that had shown at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1965. Formed of rectangular plates, bent through 90 degrees and painted with a smooth glossy black paint, Polarity and the other contemporary sculptures display a higher level of three-dimensionality and controlled movement than Adams had produced in a decade. He commented soon after the Gimpel Fils exhibition that ‘My show in September was a turning point. Things as you pointed out were three-dimensional. Polarity, attempting to get away from flat sheets and create volume.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve & Robert Adams, The Sculpture of Robert Adams (British Sculptors and Sculpture Vol.3), Ben Uri Gallery & Museum, London, 1992, p.115) There was a incredible confidence to Adams’s large works in his 1968 exhibition, and Polarity can be considered one of his major sculptures of the period, selling to the influential collectors Patsy and Raymond Nasher of Dallas, Texas.
Lot 94
each signed, patinated bronze25cm high, 20.5cm wide (9.9in, 8in wide) and 25cm high, 14cm wide (9.9in high, 5.5in wide)Footnote: Grizel Niven was a pupil of Henry Moore in the 1930s and began direct carving under his influence. Later in her career she won acclaim for her sculpture for the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial. After hearing Kate Mosse talking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about setting up a Women’s Prize for Fiction, Niven offered a cast of a sculpture of Mosse as a prize. Her younger brother was the actor David Niven.
Lot 335
6/8, incised monogram twice, dated and numbered '-19 / 6/8', incised 'MOZARTKUGELN / FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC', stamped with AB Fine Art Foundry, London mark (to base), bronze with black patina38.5cm high (15.1in high)Provenance:Waddington Custot Galleries, London, where purchased by the present owner.Footnote: We are grateful to the Estate of the Artist for their kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work. “The ears [of a hare] are really able to convey far more than a squint in an eye of a figure, or a grimace on the face of a model” (Barry Flanagan in conversation with Judith Bumpus in: Exh. Cat., London, Tate Gallery, Barry Flanagan: Prints 1970-1983, 1986, p. 15) Barry Flanagan and the hare are indelibly linked, having first appeared in Flanagan’s work in 1979 and continuing to preoccupy him for the next 30 years. He spoke of his sculptures of hares in an interview with Judith Bumpus on the occasion of his exhibition at the 1982 Venice Biennale: 'Thematically the choice of the hare is really quite a rich and expressive sort of mode; the conventions of the cartoon and the investment of human attributes into the animal world is a very well practised device, in literature and film etc., and is really quite poignant, and on a practical level, if you consider what conveys situation and meaning and feeling in a human figure, the range of expression is in fact far more limited than the device of investing an animal -a hare especially - with the expressive attributes of a human being.’ (Barry Flanagan in conversation with Judith Bumpus, Tate Gallery, London, Barry Flanagan: Prints 1970-1983, exh. cat., 1986, p. 93) Instantly recognisable as a work by Flanagan, Prom, conceived in 2001, is a quintessential work by the artist - full of movement, energy and joyfulness, and reflects the artist’s interest in dance and music. Flanagan collaborated with the Strider dance assemblage in London, choreographing two dance performances, and movement and dance elements are forever present in his hares. Furthermore, Flanagan’s work of this later period is some of the most tactile that he ever produced. Indeed Prom invites the observer to pick it up to handle its smooth linear forms and contouring lines, inviting the viewer into the frivolity and wit of the work and epitomising the elements for which Flanagan is best known.
Lot 181
EDDIE CURTIS (born 1953); a large porcelain bowl covered in copper red glaze with bronze and copper green rim, impressed EC mark, diameter 38.5cm. (D)Provenance: Purchased from Lund Gallery, Easingwold, circa 2004.Additional InformationNick to rim, otherwise appears good with no further signs of faults, damage or restorations. This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 182
EDDIE CURTIS (born 1953); a monumental porcelain jar and cover, copper red glaze with bronze and copper green top, bamboo and wire handle to cover, impressed EC mark, exhibition label, height 36.5cm, diameter 29.5cm. (D)Eddie Curtis writes: In 2005 I made two lidded porcelain containers. Regrettably one of them did not survive. The other is this piece. It was everything I had wanted from a firing, the glaze had a huge amount of visual texture going through mushroom pinks and various shades of red and what I particularly liked was the banding around the top. I was in the habit at the time of ‘super loading’ black copper oxide around the rims of my red porcelain pots with a heavily laden brush. A technique that when successful created a very metallic like finish where the corrosive copper ate into the porcelain body – it has the appearance of beaten metal. This lidded container had just that very effect that I hoped for and it remains the largest I ever made. It sold for a price that my work had never commanded before.Provenance: Purchased from the artist, Bakewell, 2005.Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 2
ABDO NAGI (1941-2001); a large stoneware bowl covered in metallic bronze glaze with dabs of pink to the well and exterior, impressed mark, made 1999, diameter 36.5cm. (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 214
GLYNN HUGO (born 1934); a stoneware pedestal form with a wide disc rim covered in bronze glaze with inlaid decoration, incised signature, diameter 26.5cm, a Jim Malone bowl covered in green ash glaze and a stoneware bowl and smoke fired raku vessel by other hands (4). (D)Additional InformationMalone bowl had re-glued chip to rim and raku vessel chip to rim, otherwise appears good with no further signs of faults, damage or restorations.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 4
ABDO NAGI (1941-2001); a large stoneware pedestal bowl covered in mottled turquoise/green glaze with bronze rim, painted mark, made 1990, diameter 40.5cm. (D)Additional InformationShort firing crack to the rim repaired by the artist otherwise appears good with no further signs of faults, damage or restorations.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 5
ABDO NAGI (1941-2001); a stoneware pedestal bowl covered in mottled turquoise glaze with bronze rim, impressed mark, made 1999, height 13.5cm. (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration. Glaze slightly thicker to bowl compared to pedestal, in good condition. Postage for this lot would be a medium box. This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 509
PETER WILLS (born 1955); a fluted porcelain bowl covered in white glaze with turquoise bands, impressed and incised marks, diameter 12.5cm, and another bowl covered in bright yellow glaze with bronze running to the well, diameter 11.5cm (2). (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 510
PETER WILLS (born 1955); a porcelain bowl covered in copper red glaze with bronze rim and foot, the well covered in copper blue outlined in bronze, incised signature and impressed mark, diameter 23cm. (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 511
PETER WILLS (born 1955); a porcelain bowl covered in copper red glaze with bronze rim, the well and foot covered in copper blue and green, incised signature and impressed mark, diameter 19.5cm. (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 571
ROBIN WELCH (1936-2019); a stoneware vessel covered in black glaze and polychrome enamel decoration with an altered bronze rim, impressed RW mark, gallery label, height 23.5cm. (D)Provenance: Purchased from Blackmore Gallery, Lymm.Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 592
SAM HALL (born 1967) for Gaolyard Studios; 'Full Moon', a flat oval stoneware vessel with floral decoration on crackled white ground and semi-eruptive bronze glaze around the base, incised signature and impressed SH and pottery marks, height 25cm. (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 1
ABDO NAGI (1941-2001); a deep stoneware vessel covered in glossy turquoise glaze with bronze rim running down the body, impressed mark, height 20.5cm. (D)Additional InformationAppears good with no obvious signs of faults, damage or restoration. The mouth is 18cm wide.This lot qualifies for Artist Resale Rights. For further information, please visit http://www.dacs.org.uk or http://artistscollectingsociety.org
Lot 54
signed, numbered and dated 'ADAMS OO/ 1980' (to base), bronze9cm high, 7cm wide (3.5in high, 2.75in iwde)Footnote: Literature: Grieve, Alastair, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, The Henry Moore Foundation & Lund Humpries, London, 1992, cat no. 680. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham acquired more works from the sculptor and painter Robert Adams, than any other specific artist, and this does suggest a deep and close friendship and a respect for each other’s art. Both artists were included in the Gimpel Fils British Abstract Art exhibition in 1951, when Adams was exploring a constructivist and abstract vocabulary, and she was moving in that direction. It was during this period in the 1950s that Adams first became associated with the artists of St Ives, having visited the town for a few weeks each summer since at least 1952 when he had been invited by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and David Lewis (her husband), along with his wife Pat to stay with them. They developed into a close-knit foursome, and made regular visits to each other’s homes in Hampstead in London, and St. Ives subsequently.Barns-Graham made a point of always having Adams’ work on display, and on moving into her new studio at Barnaloft on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives in 1963, the ceramic plate by him was the first thing hung in her new home. This plate is particularly noteworthy within Adams’ oeuvre in indicating his development to abstract art. Through the 1950s he taught at the Central School of Art and Design in London, coming into contact with Victor Pasmore and artists such as Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin who were pursuing abstract and constructivist ideas in Britain at this point, and it was at this time he loosely joined in the activities of this liked-minded group, remaining allied to them until around 1956. During this period Adams sent both paintings and sculptures to group exhibitions of their work and it is likely that this ceramic could have been among these works, specifically as Pasmore and Kenneth Martin were also known to have made designs for plates, some being exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in May 1952.The composition of the plate with the white ground broken and juxtaposed with black vertical bars and sharply edged lozenges reflect a more rigorously abstract art than he had considered before, and was reflected in a small group of further prints and collages he produced around 1952, that also resemble the art of Robert Motherwell which Adams had seen in New York and as Alastair Grieve noted must have been one of the earliest examples of the New York School in Britain.Adams played further with these ideas he had been developing in 2D in Rectangular Bronze Form No. 2 (1953) noted to be one of his earliest works in bronze and shown at his 1953 Gimpel Fils exhibition. A double-sided H-shaped bronze, made of an assortment of rectangular overlapping forms abutting one another with central planes cut away that allowed the viewer to penetrate the work and glimpse elements of the other side. However, each side is not a mirror-image of the other which defies easy interpretation as the edges and faces of the blocks slant and are not aligned to a parallel border. The two rectangular bronze forms developed in 1953 were the starting point for a colossal concrete sculpture exhibited in Holland Park in 1954, and the earliest in a series of eight architectural works, the majority of which were shown in the following one-man exhibition in 1956 at Gimpel Fils, London. Patrick Heron and David Lewis specifically praised his architectonic bronzes from this period with Heron pronouncing them as ‘certainly the most wholly non-figurative sculpture being made by a younger English sculptor today’ (Patrick Heron, Round the London Galleries, The Listener, vol.I.V, no.1407, 16 February 1956, p.256.) and Lewis observing that ‘Adams is alone in Britain in the important field of sculptural development, of sturdy sharp-edged and sharply differentiated geometrical masses which are rhythmically and energetically related in space and in light and shadow.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.61).Maquette No.2 For Triangulated Structure No.1, 1960 presents a development in his sculptural approach to a period where he shifted his focus to welded metal sculpture converging on a strong sense of movement created by the juxtaposition of horizontal planes and vertical rods. The maquette was the basis for a large steel sculpture designed for Battersea Park in 1960 and as Adams’ later commented with these sculptures ‘I am concerned with energy, a physical property inherent in metal. A major aim I would say, is movement, which I seem to get through asymmetry.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.76).Sphere (1980) by comparison, belonging to Adams’ last flourishing as an artist, evokes a calmness and stillness contrasting to his work of the early 1960s and focus on movement. Small, rounded with a highly polished surface the ovoid form is suggestive of potential birth, life and completion and most closely echoes the work from the beginning of his career.This charming and personal collection of works by Robert Adams, works spreading throughout his whole career, reflects a deep-set connection and respect between both artists, one that would prove a source of inspiration for Barns-Graham with some of Adams forms mirroring ideas she explored within her own work such as Ultramarine II (2000) which uses Adams’ Rectangular Bronze Form as direct inspiration. There is no doubt that Barns-Graham understood the significance of Robert Adams and his work in the post-war British sculptural canon and would have been forthright at positioning him at the forefront of this school.
Lot 53
steel wire painted grey on black base23.5cm high (including base), 13cm wide (9.25in high, 5.1in wide)Footnote: Literature:Grieve, Alastair, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, The Henry Moore Foundation & Lund Humpries, London, 1992, cat no. 296. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham acquired more works from the sculptor and painter Robert Adams, than any other specific artist, and this does suggest a deep and close friendship and a respect for each other’s art. Both artists were included in the Gimpel Fils British Abstract Art exhibition in 1951, when Adams was exploring a constructivist and abstract vocabulary, and she was moving in that direction. It was during this period in the 1950s that Adams first became associated with the artists of St Ives, having visited the town for a few weeks each summer since at least 1952 when he had been invited by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and David Lewis (her husband), along with his wife Pat to stay with them. They developed into a close-knit foursome, and made regular visits to each other’s homes in Hampstead in London, and St. Ives subsequently.Barns-Graham made a point of always having Adams’ work on display, and on moving into her new studio at Barnaloft on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives in 1963, the ceramic plate by him was the first thing hung in her new home. This plate is particularly noteworthy within Adams’ oeuvre in indicating his development to abstract art. Through the 1950s he taught at the Central School of Art and Design in London, coming into contact with Victor Pasmore and artists such as Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin who were pursuing abstract and constructivist ideas in Britain at this point, and it was at this time he loosely joined in the activities of this liked-minded group, remaining allied to them until around 1956. During this period Adams sent both paintings and sculptures to group exhibitions of their work and it is likely that this ceramic could have been among these works, specifically as Pasmore and Kenneth Martin were also known to have made designs for plates, some being exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in May 1952.The composition of the plate with the white ground broken and juxtaposed with black vertical bars and sharply edged lozenges reflect a more rigorously abstract art than he had considered before, and was reflected in a small group of further prints and collages he produced around 1952, that also resemble the art of Robert Motherwell which Adams had seen in New York and as Alastair Grieve noted must have been one of the earliest examples of the New York School in Britain.Adams played further with these ideas he had been developing in 2D in Rectangular Bronze Form No. 2 (1953) noted to be one of his earliest works in bronze and shown at his 1953 Gimpel Fils exhibition. A double-sided H-shaped bronze, made of an assortment of rectangular overlapping forms abutting one another with central planes cut away that allowed the viewer to penetrate the work and glimpse elements of the other side. However, each side is not a mirror-image of the other which defies easy interpretation as the edges and faces of the blocks slant and are not aligned to a parallel border. The two rectangular bronze forms developed in 1953 were the starting point for a colossal concrete sculpture exhibited in Holland Park in 1954, and the earliest in a series of eight architectural works, the majority of which were shown in the following one-man exhibition in 1956 at Gimpel Fils, London. Patrick Heron and David Lewis specifically praised his architectonic bronzes from this period with Heron pronouncing them as ‘certainly the most wholly non-figurative sculpture being made by a younger English sculptor today’ (Patrick Heron, Round the London Galleries, The Listener, vol.I.V, no.1407, 16 February 1956, p.256.) and Lewis observing that ‘Adams is alone in Britain in the important field of sculptural development, of sturdy sharp-edged and sharply differentiated geometrical masses which are rhythmically and energetically related in space and in light and shadow.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.61).Maquette No.2 For Triangulated Structure No.1, 1960 presents a development in his sculptural approach to a period where he shifted his focus to welded metal sculpture converging on a strong sense of movement created by the juxtaposition of horizontal planes and vertical rods. The maquette was the basis for a large steel sculpture designed for Battersea Park in 1960 and as Adams’ later commented with these sculptures ‘I am concerned with energy, a physical property inherent in metal. A major aim I would say, is movement, which I seem to get through asymmetry.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.76).Sphere (1980) by comparison, belonging to Adams’ last flourishing as an artist, evokes a calmness and stillness contrasting to his work of the early 1960s and focus on movement. Small, rounded with a highly polished surface the ovoid form is suggestive of potential birth, life and completion and most closely echoes the work from the beginning of his career.This charming and personal collection of works by Robert Adams, works spreading throughout his whole career, reflects a deep-set connection and respect between both artists, one that would prove a source of inspiration for Barns-Graham with some of Adams forms mirroring ideas she explored within her own work such as Ultramarine II (2000) which uses Adams’ Rectangular Bronze Form as direct inspiration. There is no doubt that Barns-Graham understood the significance of Robert Adams and his work in the post-war British sculptural canon and would have been forthright at positioning him at the forefront of this school.
Lot 51
signed 'ADAMS' (to reverse), painted earthenware25cm diameter (9.8in diameter)Footnote: Literature:Grieve, Alastair, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, The Henry Moore Foundation & Lund Humphries, London, 1992, cat no. 138c, illus. pg.38 with a paper design.Note: This is possibly from a set of 10 different designs, although Grieve only identifies three. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham acquired more works from the sculptor and painter Robert Adams, than any other specific artist, and this does suggest a deep and close friendship and a respect for each other’s art. Both artists were included in the Gimpel Fils British Abstract Art exhibition in 1951, when Adams was exploring a constructivist and abstract vocabulary, and she was moving in that direction. It was during this period in the 1950s that Adams first became associated with the artists of St Ives, having visited the town for a few weeks each summer since at least 1952 when he had been invited by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and David Lewis (her husband), along with his wife Pat to stay with them. They developed into a close-knit foursome, and made regular visits to each other’s homes in Hampstead in London, and St. Ives subsequently.Barns-Graham made a point of always having Adams’ work on display, and on moving into her new studio at Barnaloft on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives in 1963, the ceramic plate by him was the first thing hung in her new home. This plate is particularly noteworthy within Adams’ oeuvre in indicating his development to abstract art. Through the 1950s he taught at the Central School of Art and Design in London, coming into contact with Victor Pasmore and artists such as Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin who were pursuing abstract and constructivist ideas in Britain at this point, and it was at this time he loosely joined in the activities of this liked-minded group, remaining allied to them until around 1956. During this period Adams sent both paintings and sculptures to group exhibitions of their work and it is likely that this ceramic could have been among these works, specifically as Pasmore and Kenneth Martin were also known to have made designs for plates, some being exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in May 1952.The composition of the plate with the white ground broken and juxtaposed with black vertical bars and sharply edged lozenges reflect a more rigorously abstract art than he had considered before, and was reflected in a small group of further prints and collages he produced around 1952, that also resemble the art of Robert Motherwell which Adams had seen in New York and as Alastair Grieve noted must have been one of the earliest examples of the New York School in Britain.Adams played further with these ideas he had been developing in 2D in Rectangular Bronze Form No. 2 (1953) noted to be one of his earliest works in bronze and shown at his 1953 Gimpel Fils exhibition. A double-sided H-shaped bronze, made of an assortment of rectangular overlapping forms abutting one another with central planes cut away that allowed the viewer to penetrate the work and glimpse elements of the other side. However, each side is not a mirror-image of the other which defies easy interpretation as the edges and faces of the blocks slant and are not aligned to a parallel border. The two rectangular bronze forms developed in 1953 were the starting point for a colossal concrete sculpture exhibited in Holland Park in 1954, and the earliest in a series of eight architectural works, the majority of which were shown in the following one-man exhibition in 1956 at Gimpel Fils, London. Patrick Heron and David Lewis specifically praised his architectonic bronzes from this period with Heron pronouncing them as ‘certainly the most wholly non-figurative sculpture being made by a younger English sculptor today’ (Patrick Heron, Round the London Galleries, The Listener, vol.I.V, no.1407, 16 February 1956, p.256.) and Lewis observing that ‘Adams is alone in Britain in the important field of sculptural development, of sturdy sharp-edged and sharply differentiated geometrical masses which are rhythmically and energetically related in space and in light and shadow.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.61).Maquette No.2 For Triangulated Structure No.1, 1960 presents a development in his sculptural approach to a period where he shifted his focus to welded metal sculpture converging on a strong sense of movement created by the juxtaposition of horizontal planes and vertical rods. The maquette was the basis for a large steel sculpture designed for Battersea Park in 1960 and as Adams’ later commented with these sculptures ‘I am concerned with energy, a physical property inherent in metal. A major aim I would say, is movement, which I seem to get through asymmetry.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.76).Sphere (1980) by comparison, belonging to Adams’ last flourishing as an artist, evokes a calmness and stillness contrasting to his work of the early 1960s and focus on movement. Small, rounded with a highly polished surface the ovoid form is suggestive of potential birth, life and completion and most closely echoes the work from the beginning of his career.This charming and personal collection of works by Robert Adams, works spreading throughout his whole career, reflects a deep-set connection and respect between both artists, one that would prove a source of inspiration for Barns-Graham with some of Adams forms mirroring ideas she explored within her own work such as Ultramarine II (2000) which uses Adams’ Rectangular Bronze Form as direct inspiration. There is no doubt that Barns-Graham understood the significance of Robert Adams and his work in the post-war British sculptural canon and would have been forthright at positioning him at the forefront of this school.
Lot 52
from an edition of 6, bronze15.5cm high, 10.2cm wide (6.1in high, 4in wide)Footnote: Literature:Grieve, Alastair, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, The Henry Moore Foundation & Lund Humpries, London, 1992, cat no. 157.Note: This sculpture inspired Wilhelmina Barns-Grahams painting Ultramarine II, 2000 (Lynne Green, 2011, p.276). Wilhelmina Barns-Graham acquired more works from the sculptor and painter Robert Adams, than any other specific artist, and this does suggest a deep and close friendship and a respect for each other’s art. Both artists were included in the Gimpel Fils British Abstract Art exhibition in 1951, when Adams was exploring a constructivist and abstract vocabulary, and she was moving in that direction. It was during this period in the 1950s that Adams first became associated with the artists of St Ives, having visited the town for a few weeks each summer since at least 1952 when he had been invited by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and David Lewis (her husband), along with his wife Pat to stay with them. They developed into a close-knit foursome, and made regular visits to each other’s homes in Hampstead in London, and St. Ives subsequently.Barns-Graham made a point of always having Adams’ work on display, and on moving into her new studio at Barnaloft on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives in 1963, the ceramic plate by him was the first thing hung in her new home. This plate is particularly noteworthy within Adams’ oeuvre in indicating his development to abstract art. Through the 1950s he taught at the Central School of Art and Design in London, coming into contact with Victor Pasmore and artists such as Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin who were pursuing abstract and constructivist ideas in Britain at this point, and it was at this time he loosely joined in the activities of this liked-minded group, remaining allied to them until around 1956. During this period Adams sent both paintings and sculptures to group exhibitions of their work and it is likely that this ceramic could have been among these works, specifically as Pasmore and Kenneth Martin were also known to have made designs for plates, some being exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in May 1952.The composition of the plate with the white ground broken and juxtaposed with black vertical bars and sharply edged lozenges reflect a more rigorously abstract art than he had considered before, and was reflected in a small group of further prints and collages he produced around 1952, that also resemble the art of Robert Motherwell which Adams had seen in New York and as Alastair Grieve noted must have been one of the earliest examples of the New York School in Britain.Adams played further with these ideas he had been developing in 2D in Rectangular Bronze Form No. 2 (1953) noted to be one of his earliest works in bronze and shown at his 1953 Gimpel Fils exhibition. A double-sided H-shaped bronze, made of an assortment of rectangular overlapping forms abutting one another with central planes cut away that allowed the viewer to penetrate the work and glimpse elements of the other side. However, each side is not a mirror-image of the other which defies easy interpretation as the edges and faces of the blocks slant and are not aligned to a parallel border. The two rectangular bronze forms developed in 1953 were the starting point for a colossal concrete sculpture exhibited in Holland Park in 1954, and the earliest in a series of eight architectural works, the majority of which were shown in the following one-man exhibition in 1956 at Gimpel Fils, London. Patrick Heron and David Lewis specifically praised his architectonic bronzes from this period with Heron pronouncing them as ‘certainly the most wholly non-figurative sculpture being made by a younger English sculptor today’ (Patrick Heron, Round the London Galleries, The Listener, vol.I.V, no.1407, 16 February 1956, p.256.) and Lewis observing that ‘Adams is alone in Britain in the important field of sculptural development, of sturdy sharp-edged and sharply differentiated geometrical masses which are rhythmically and energetically related in space and in light and shadow.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.61).Maquette No.2 For Triangulated Structure No.1, 1960 presents a development in his sculptural approach to a period where he shifted his focus to welded metal sculpture converging on a strong sense of movement created by the juxtaposition of horizontal planes and vertical rods. The maquette was the basis for a large steel sculpture designed for Battersea Park in 1960 and as Adams’ later commented with these sculptures ‘I am concerned with energy, a physical property inherent in metal. A major aim I would say, is movement, which I seem to get through asymmetry.’ (Quoted in Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, p.76).Sphere (1980) by comparison, belonging to Adams’ last flourishing as an artist, evokes a calmness and stillness contrasting to his work of the early 1960s and focus on movement. Small, rounded with a highly polished surface the ovoid form is suggestive of potential birth, life and completion and most closely echoes the work from the beginning of his career.This charming and personal collection of works by Robert Adams, works spreading throughout his whole career, reflects a deep-set connection and respect between both artists, one that would prove a source of inspiration for Barns-Graham with some of Adams forms mirroring ideas she explored within her own work such as Ultramarine II (2000) which uses Adams’ Rectangular Bronze Form as direct inspiration. There is no doubt that Barns-Graham understood the significance of Robert Adams and his work in the post-war British sculptural canon and would have been forthright at positioning him at the forefront of this school.
Lot 136
Nach Auguste Rodin (1840 Paris - 1917 Meudon)2-tlg., paar Nachgüsse in Bronze, 'Der Kuss', Bronze, Maße 24 cm x 15 cm, 'BK-RAC Reproduktion 1986' gestempelt und datiert, 73/750 nummeriert, im Guß signiert; 'La Toilette de Venus', Bronze, Höhe 40 cm, 'RAC 87' gestempelt und datiert, 274/750 nummeriert, im Guß signiert, Zertifikate anbei
Lot 1098
§ AMENDED DESCRIPTION Attributed to Austin Churton Fairman (aka Mike Raven, British, 1924-1997), Figures in an embrace, bronze, signed 'Churton' and numbered 2/1045 cm highCondition Report: Good condition overall, with general surface scratches and small areas of cracking that may have been part of the original production process.
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