Peter Lanyon

Gimpel Fils, London
Private Collection, 2001
Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner

London, Gimpel Fils, Peter Lanyon 1918-1964: Reliefs, Constructions and Related Paintings, 20th May - 21st June 1975, cat. no.31;
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Peter Lanyon: Paintings, Drawings and Constructions 1937-64, 25th January - 4th March 1978, cat. no.84, with Arts Council tour to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, Penwith Society of Arts, St Ives and Royal West of England Academy of Arts, Bristol;
London, Courtauld Gallery, Soaring Flight: Peter Lanyon's Gliding Paintings, 15th October 2015 - 17th January 2016, cat. no.21, illustrated pp.147-9.

Andrew Lanyon, Peter Lanyon 1918-1964, Penzance, 1990, illustrated p.251;
Chris Stephens, Peter Lanyon: At The Edge of Landscape, 21 Publishing, London, 2000, p.169, illustrated pl.98;
Margaret Garlake, Peter Lanyon, Tate Publishing, London, 2001, p.65, illustrated pl.57;
Peter Lanyon (exh. cat.), Tate Publishing, London, 2010, illustrated p.99.

The elements of the work appear sound and securely attached. There is inherent wear to the found objects. There are fine lines of cracking to some of the wood elements in line with the grain of the wood, most apparent to the back and base of the work. There is rounding and rubbing to the extremities of the work in places, as well as a few very light scuffs and scratches, including a light scuff to the reverse of the painted board in the blue pigment towards to the right side. There are light handling marks in places and there is light surface dirt to the base and some studio detritus in places. There is some rust to the screws at the reverse and there is a small area of matter to the right hand side of the front of the red board. There are some cracks to the formica to the front of the triangular element, which could be in keeping with the Artist's technique, with some very tiny associated flecks of loss. Subject to the above the work appears to be in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals some light fluorescence to the reverse of the board near the top, which is thought to be in keeping with the Artist's materials. The work is freestanding. Please telephone the department on +44 207 293 6424 if you have any questions.
"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.
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We are grateful to Toby Treves and Martin Lanyon for their kind assistance with the cataloguing apparatus for the present work, which will feature in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the Artist’s oil paintings and three-dimensional works, being prepared by Toby Treves, to be published by Modern Art Press in association with Yale University Press.

'I had my first go at leaving the aerodrome like leaving the nursery last Sunday and landed in a field having lost myself in cloud. There is something very profound about landing into one’s county. I was towed out by a roaring Tiger Moth...it was a glorious day.' (Peter Lanyon, letter to John Dalton, 17th May 1962, Lanyon Family Archive)

Peter Lanyon first started making constructions in the late 1930s, under the tuition of Ben Nicholson, and was further encouraged by working in Naum Gabo’s studio in Carbis Bay, St Ives. Whilst his first forays into these constructivist sculptures betray a visible debt to Gabo’s work, Lanyon went on to develop a distinctly personal approach to his constructions, using glass, paint, wood, aluminium and Perspex to create fascinating works which also lend a wonderful insight into his work as a painter: many can be read as experiments in space, his painterly ideas translated succinctly into three dimensions.

The present work is an intriguing example of a constructivist work which takes direct inspiration from the Artist’s experiences gliding. Lanyon trained as a glider pilot in 1959, and the pursuit reinvigorated his approach to both the landscape and his art: it unleashed his gliding paintings, large-scale, highly gestural works which speak of the experience of being buffeted by the elements. In Field Landing, however, Lanyon has moved from relaying the feeling of flying to the sensation of steering and landing. The title of the work, ‘Field Landing’, refers to an emergency landing, made when a pilot has insufficient altitude to return to the original airfield they took off from, and must instead find an appropriately flat and clear space on which to land. Lanyon completed his first solo field landing in May 1962, and it must have been a formative experience in his time as a pilot, describing it as ‘like leaving the nursery.' He made the landing: ‘having lost myself in a cloud. There is something very profound about landing into one’s country’ (letter to John Dalton, 17th May 1962, Lanyon Family Archive). 

In Field Landing, Lanyon has assembled an almost Duchamp-esque selection of ‘found objects’, which offer a number of different readings and interpretations. The brightly painted red and green board, with its irregular geometric edges, seems to represent both the wings of the glider and the various changes in direction made during flight. Wooden levers – perhaps taken from a piece of domestic furniture – jut out at varying angles, suggesting the structures of the glider. Two further levers – the top of a kitchen implement and what appears to be a bell –  mimic perhaps the gearstick and brake of the glider, but could also be interpreted as elements of the landscape, surrounded by fields and roads, suggested by the green, black and white paint around them. Lanyon’s gliding paintings often feature all-over compositions, encouraging the viewer’s eye to rove freely across the canvas, and Field Landing is a sophisticated realisation of this in sculptural form. At once construction, painting, and assemblage of found objects, Field Landing demonstrates Lanyon’s indefatigable passion for pushing the boundaries both of physical experience and artistic representation.