Graham Sutherland, O.M. 1903-1980

Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York
Galleria Il Fauno, Turin

Francesco Arcangeli, Graham Sutherland, Fratelli Fabbri Editori, Milan, 1973, no.147, illustrated.

From 1962-64, Sutherland was involved with his only major sculpture commission, a project which resulted in his most ambitious work to date in this medium. Together with the architect Louis Osman, he designed an altar cross in gold and silver for Ely Cathedral. The highly complex design involved a crucifix and figure set within a heart as part of a much larger framework designed by Osman. The final sculpture consisted of at least forty-five individual parts but could not, in the end, be incorporated into the setting. Sutherland's design was subsequently cast into a smaller scale sculpture in 1964. 

Painted from 1964 - 65, Sutherland would have executed the present work with this commission fresh in his mind. The three sculptural forms with their intertwining components reflect the complexity of the Ely commission but also relate to the more organic forms and Mediterranean motifs that had preoccupied him throughout the previous decade in the South of France. The machine-like curves and angles of the sculptures also signal his early training as an engineer and his interest in the relationship between the mechanical and natural worlds explored in paintings such as Hydrant II (1954, Coll. Tate Gallery) and Machine against Black Ground, (1962, Private Collection).