Bernard Meadows 1915-2005

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Bernard Meadows
Seated Armed Figure (Tycoon)
signed with monogram
bronze with a dark grey green patina
height 51cm., 20 1/4 in.

Provenance

Purchased directly from the artist at the 1964 Venice Biennale by the family of the present owner

Exhibited

London, Gimpel Fils, Bernard Meadows: Recent Sculpture, February – March 1963, cat.no.5, illustrated on the cover of the exhibition catalogue (another cast)
Venice, XXXII Expositione Biennnale Internazionale d'Arte, 1964 (this cast).

Literature

A.M.Hammacher, Modern English Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, London 1967, no.119 (as Tycoon(opus 54)), illustrated in colour (possibly this cast);
Benedict Read & David Thistlewood, Herbert Read: A British Vision of World Art, Leeds City Art Galleries in association with The Henry Moore Foundation and Lund Humphries, London, 1993, pp.132 pl.149, installation shot of Meadows’ 1964 Venice exhibition showing this cast;
Alan Bowness, Bernard Meadows: Sculpture & Drawings, Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1995, no.BM74, pl.44, illustrated (another cast).

Catalogue Note

Conceived in 1961 and cast in an edition of 6, this work is listed in the artist's records as Opus 54.

After a visit to Florence in 1960, Meadows had been much influenced by the bellicose manner of the renaissance figure sculpture in the city, and particularly Michelangelo’s Brutus in the Bargello, with which the present sculpture is clearly linked. These strong armoured figures were a symbol of power and Meadows brought this sense of threat into the figure sculptures that he was to produce over the next four years.