Frederick Edward McWilliam, R.A.

Waddington Galleries, London, 1961

London, Waddington Galleries, F.E. McWilliam, February - March, 1961, no.4;
Paris, Musée Rodin, International Open Air Sculpture Exhibition, 1961

Roland Penrose, McWilliam Sculptor, Alec Tiranti, London, 1964, no.5, illustrated;
Judy Marle and T.P. Flanagan, F.E. McWilliam, exh.cat., The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1981, illustrated frontispiece;
Mel Gooding, F.E. McWilliam Sculpture 1932-1989, exh.cat., The Tate Gallery, London, 1989, illustrated p.21 and p.32;
Denise Ferran, F.E. McWilliam at Banbridge, exh.cat., The F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge, 2008, illustrated pp.16-17;
Denise Ferran and Valerie Holman, The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam, Lund Humphires and The Henry Moore Foundation, 2012, no.184, illustrated p.126

The work has been outside (as the artist intended), which is reflected in its patina and some areas of debris. However overall the work appears in very good condition.
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A wonderful photo, fig. 1, shows the present work standing in the garden of McWilliam’s house in Holland Park, London, with his studio behind. Lying on the grass in front are some of the great painters of the St Ives post-war art school, who were  rising to international prominence at that time: Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Bryan Wynter and William Scott, and sat amongst them McWilliam himself. McWilliam hosted the small party for his friends following the opening of the exhibition Painting and Sculpture of a Decade at the Tate in 1964. What looks like a spontaneous photo was in fact carefully staged by McWilliam to record the moment. The Moet et Chandon champagne bottles were purposefully positioned, as was the casual appearance of the Gitanes cigarette packets, one open, the other closed. Framed prominently behind against the white-washed studio wall is Bilateral Relief, which as Denise Ferran points out, ‘is presented more in the manner of an exhibited painting than a piece of sculpture’ (Ferran, F.E. McWilliam at Banbridge, p.16).

McWilliam’s support and loyalty to his artistic friends was highly valued, and it is interesting to note that those depicted in his photo are painters – McWilliam claimed he learned more from them than sculptors. That aligns with McWilliam’s open-minded approach to his work, continually seeking new challenges and methods and staying firm to his own individual path as a sculptor. However, of the present work, conversely it might be argued that in the broken surface and agitated form, typical of McWilliam’s bronzes at this time, he in fact comes closest to the work of his contemporary sculptors in 1950s Britain, such as Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler and Robert Adams. There is angst and an alien quality to much of the sculpture made during this period, which certainly resonates with Bilateral Relief.

By the mid-1960s, McWilliam’s work had taken a very different shape with the evolution of his ‘Bean’ series, but the constant thread throughout McWilliam’s work are themes of mystery and intrigue. As a unique piece, highly regarded by McWilliam, Bilateral Relief epitomises both his work of the 1950s and more broadly British sculpture of the period, and emphatically displays his vital contribution to 20^th century sculpture.