- 31
LYNN CHADWICK, R.A. | Beast XXI
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- Lynn Chadwick
- Beast XXI
- signed, dated 59, numbered 315 and 1/6 and stamped with foundry mark
- bronze
- length: 96.5cm.; 38in.
- Conceived in 1959, cast by Brotal in 1960, the present work is number 1 from the edition of 6.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the Artist by the architect Kenneth Scott in 1960 and thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited
Hanover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Kenneth Armitage, Lynn Chadwick, 12th April - 15th May 1960, cat. no.68, illustrated (another cast), with tour to Ulmer Museum, Ulm; Städtische Kunstmuseum, Duisberg; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin and Städtische Kunstsammlung, Nuremberg;
New York, Knoedler Galleries, Lynn Chadwick, 3rd - 28th January 1961, illustrated (another cast);
Bregenz, Englischer Kunst der Gegenwart, 1977, cat. no.58 (another cast);
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Sculpture of the 20th Century by British and European Artists, 21st - 31st October 2003, cat. no.7, illustrated (another cast).
New York, Knoedler Galleries, Lynn Chadwick, 3rd - 28th January 1961, illustrated (another cast);
Bregenz, Englischer Kunst der Gegenwart, 1977, cat. no.58 (another cast);
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Sculpture of the 20th Century by British and European Artists, 21st - 31st October 2003, cat. no.7, illustrated (another cast).
Literature
'Nel Ghana, regione di Accra', Domus, 393, August 1962, illustrated (this cast);
Dennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2014, cat. no.315, illustrated p.182.
Dennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2014, cat. no.315, illustrated p.182.
Condition
The sculpture is sound. The surface of the bronze is uneven in places, in keeping with the Artist's medium and techniques. There is very light rubbing to some protruding areas most evident to the Beast's legs and tail. There are one or two very fine scratches to the beast's back right leg, with one or two possible further instances elsewhere. There are one or two minor spots of oxidisation in places including to the upper part of the beast's right front leg and to the proper left side of the head, with some further oxidisation to the under side of the Beast's head, with possible further instances elsewhere. There are remnants of casting residue to creviced places and surface dirt. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in very good overall condition. The work is freestanding. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions 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."
"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."
Catalogue Note
We are grateful to The Estate of Lynn Chadwick for their kind assistance with the cataloguing of this lot. Chadwick first struck upon the beast as a subject in 1955, and it was to become a theme to which he frequently returned, inspiring some of his best work. It may be significant that earlier in the year he visited Mykonos and Delos and saw the ancient remains of the famous avenue of lions at Delos, that have been dated to the second quarter of the sixth century B.C. He greatly admired these ancient sculptures with their menacing posture and weathered forms and they may have been a catalyst for his preoccupation with the subject (Dennis Farr, Lynn Chadwick, Tate Publishing, London, 2003, pp.51-52). The beast allowed Chadwick to create a sculptural metaphor for the essence of animality without ensnaring him in the representational or illusionistic. Superficially an abstraction, these works do not represent a particular kind of beast; instead they pulsate with a mysterious animal vigour.
Beast XXI is a lithe creature with an alert, anxious, and threatening presence. Its surface is shattered. The sharp angles of its form are led by the long horizontal line that runs through the head, spine and tail. Chadwick did not go to art school and had no formal training as a sculptor. Instead he transferred his experience as an architectural draughtsman to his sculptural technique. He built his sculptures using geometric space frames, welding metal strips together to create an armature, which he referred to as 'drawings in steel rods' (Lynn Chadwick quoted in Michael Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Lund Humphries, London, p.28). To these structures Chadwick applied stolit, an immensely strong artificial stone, made of a paste of gypsum and powdered iron which sets hard and could then be filed and chiselled. By hatching and carving the surfaces of his sculptures, Chadwick made them vital and alive. However, the armature, even after filling-in, is never disguised, but becomes an essential part of the surface, evoking tensions of muscle, skin and bone. In the later part of the decade, Chadwick began very successfully to cast these works in bronze. This was a more durable material than iron and composition and one that allowed for the production of several casts. Its sleeker surface also better complemented the angular form of the works. A polished rib catches the light, drawing the eye quickly about the body in the direction lines of the armature that show underneath the skin, creating a tense dynamism.
As with most of Chadwick’s works of the 1950s, Beast XXI speaks in the vocabulary of the ‘geometry of fear’. This term was coined in 1952 by the poet and art critic Herbert Read. He used the phrase in a review of the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The British contribution was an exhibition of the work from a group of young sculptors, including Robert Adams, Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Geoffrey Clarke, Bernard Meadows, Eduardo Paolozzi, William Turnbull and of course Lynn Chadwick, who had emerged immediately after the Second World War, following in the footsteps of Henry Moore. Their work was characterised by spiky, alien-looking twisted and tortured figures. These were executed in pitted bronze or welded metal and vividly expressed a range of states of mind and emotions related to the anxieties and fears of the post-war period. Read wrote: ‘These new images belong to the iconography of despair, or of defiance; and the more innocent the artist, the more effectively he transmits the collective guilt. Here are images of flight, or ragged claws "scuttling across the floors of silent seas", of excoriated flesh, frustrated sex, the geometry of fear' (Herbert Read, ‘New Aspects of British Sculpture’, The XXVI Venice Biennale: The British Pavilion, 1952).
Beast XXI is a lithe creature with an alert, anxious, and threatening presence. Its surface is shattered. The sharp angles of its form are led by the long horizontal line that runs through the head, spine and tail. Chadwick did not go to art school and had no formal training as a sculptor. Instead he transferred his experience as an architectural draughtsman to his sculptural technique. He built his sculptures using geometric space frames, welding metal strips together to create an armature, which he referred to as 'drawings in steel rods' (Lynn Chadwick quoted in Michael Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Lund Humphries, London, p.28). To these structures Chadwick applied stolit, an immensely strong artificial stone, made of a paste of gypsum and powdered iron which sets hard and could then be filed and chiselled. By hatching and carving the surfaces of his sculptures, Chadwick made them vital and alive. However, the armature, even after filling-in, is never disguised, but becomes an essential part of the surface, evoking tensions of muscle, skin and bone. In the later part of the decade, Chadwick began very successfully to cast these works in bronze. This was a more durable material than iron and composition and one that allowed for the production of several casts. Its sleeker surface also better complemented the angular form of the works. A polished rib catches the light, drawing the eye quickly about the body in the direction lines of the armature that show underneath the skin, creating a tense dynamism.
As with most of Chadwick’s works of the 1950s, Beast XXI speaks in the vocabulary of the ‘geometry of fear’. This term was coined in 1952 by the poet and art critic Herbert Read. He used the phrase in a review of the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The British contribution was an exhibition of the work from a group of young sculptors, including Robert Adams, Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Geoffrey Clarke, Bernard Meadows, Eduardo Paolozzi, William Turnbull and of course Lynn Chadwick, who had emerged immediately after the Second World War, following in the footsteps of Henry Moore. Their work was characterised by spiky, alien-looking twisted and tortured figures. These were executed in pitted bronze or welded metal and vividly expressed a range of states of mind and emotions related to the anxieties and fears of the post-war period. Read wrote: ‘These new images belong to the iconography of despair, or of defiance; and the more innocent the artist, the more effectively he transmits the collective guilt. Here are images of flight, or ragged claws "scuttling across the floors of silent seas", of excoriated flesh, frustrated sex, the geometry of fear' (Herbert Read, ‘New Aspects of British Sculpture’, The XXVI Venice Biennale: The British Pavilion, 1952).