Kenneth Armitage, R.A.

Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1959

Leeds, City Art Gallery, Modern Sculpture, 8th October - 5th November 1958, cat. no.1, illustrated (another cast);
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Kenneth Armitage, July - August 1958, cat. no.38 (another cast);
British Pavilion, XXIX Venice Biennale, Kenneth Armitage, S.W. Hayter, William Scott, 1958, cat. no.85 (another cast).

Tamsyn Woollcombe, Kenneth Armitage, Life and Work, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1997, cat. no.78, p.144.

Structurally sound. There are minor traces of very light surface dirt, with a few spots of tiny surface matter and traces of very minor casting residue apparent, but this excepting the work appears in excellent overall condition. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any queries regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to Tamsyn Woollcombe for her kind assistance with the cataloguing for the present work.

The present work was conceived in 1957 as the model for the monumental Diarchy which stood at nearly 2 meters in height. Armitage originally produced an edition of six unnumbered casts of the present work, which he cast himself, at a time when Armitage had his own foundry with Bernard Meadows and Model for Diarchy (Small Version) is very much a hand crafted sculpture. The large scale Diarchy (Woollcombe, KA79) was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1958 when Armitage won the David E. Bright Foundation Award. It was then bought by the Tate in 1971 and is thought to be Armitage’s response to Henry Moore’s King and Queen of 1952. Roland Penrose wrote of the sculpture: ‘The conception is the product of a society which has discovered how to cement individuals into a great permanent structure ... The play between volume and wafer-like thinness has in it again one of the touches of inconsistency and humour in which Armitage delights ... Armitage invites us to smile at their clumsiness, to delight in their vigour and to marvel at the monumental dignity of human architecture.’ (Penrose quoted in Lynton Norbert, Kenneth Armitage, Methuen, London, 1962, un-numbered.)