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KENNETH ARMITAGE | People in a Wind (Small Version I)
估價
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
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招標截止
描述
- Kenneth Armitage
- People in a Wind (Small Version I)
- bronze
- height: 29cm.; 11½in.
- Conceived in 1950, the present work is from an edition of 5.
來源
Gimpel Weitzenhoffer Ltd, New York
Private Collection, U.S.A., from whom acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, U.S.A., from whom acquired by the present owner
展覽
Zurich, Industrial Design Exhibition, British Council, 1953, details untraced (probably this cast);
London, Gimpel Fils, Kenneth Armitage, December 1952, cat. no.41 (another cast).
London, Gimpel Fils, Kenneth Armitage, December 1952, cat. no.41 (another cast).
出版
Tamsyn Woollcombe (ed.), Kenneth Armitage; Life and Work, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1997, cat. no.KA10, p.143 (another cast);
James Scott and Claudia Milburn, The Sculpture of Kenneth Armitage, Lund Humphries, London, 2016, cat. no.8, illustrated p.92 (another cast).
James Scott and Claudia Milburn, The Sculpture of Kenneth Armitage, Lund Humphries, London, 2016, cat. no.8, illustrated p.92 (another cast).
Condition
The sculpture appears sound. There appears to be a tiny and historic crack to the surface of the bronze in the third leg from the left of the sculpture, possibly as a result of the casting process.There are a small number of very faint scratches to the patina, including one light diagonal scratch to the left side of the rear-most figure's torso. There is some light rubbing to protruding areas, including to the figures' hands, heads and lower part of their torsos. There are remnants of casting residue and dirt in creviced areas. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in very good overall condition. There is an integral Artist's bronze base. 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."
拍品資料及來源
We are grateful to James Scott for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.
In 1952, only six years after he was de-mobbed from the army and thus finally able to embark on a career as an artist, Kenneth Armitage announced himself to the international art world with his showing at the Venice Biennale, a group of works that included the large version of People in the Wind (casts of which were bought by Peggy Guggenheim and Alfred Barr for MoMA) as well as Family Going for a Walk (a cast of which was also bought a few months later by Barr). Armitage and his contemporaries – Lynn Chadwick, William Turnbull, Eduardo Paolozzi, Reg Butler and Bernard Meadows –were presented by Herbert Read, the curator of the British Pavilion, as the ‘young Turks’ in counterpoint to the ‘grand old man’ of British sculpture, Henry Moore. In his introduction to the exhibition, Read sought to sum up what these young sculptors, whose work had a spiky, existential quality, had in common, in the process coining a phrase - the Geometry of Fear - that has been used ever since to describe the group. As People in the Wind elegantly demonstrates, however, there is very little ‘fear’ in Armitage’s work, quite the opposite. Spiky it may be, but what defines his figures is their stoicism, their sense of endurance and, above all perhaps, their warmth and spirit. People in the Wind was inspired by real life, a glimpse of a mother and her children crossing the street across from his studio window, struggling against a blustery wind. In this sculpture Armitage literally makes the figures tightly knit, thus turning them into a metaphor of family ties, proximity and protection.
It is this optimism and warmth that makes Armitage’s sculptures of this period so different from those of Reg Butler – perhaps the artist whose work is best described by the idea of a ‘Geometry of Fear’. Butler’s figures look up to a Cold War sky, watchful for the destruction that might rain down from it; they are stretched and stressed by forces seemingly out of their control. The etiolation of the figure in Armitage’s work does lend his figures a sense of fragility, but there is a strength too, so they stretch out to hold the space around them, combining their strength by forming little structures out of their limbs. As Armitage wrote in his artist’s statement for The New Decade, just one of the seminal survey shows of European art held at MoMA in the 1950s that featured his work, ‘gravity stiffens this world, we can touch and see with verticals and horizontals... we walk vertically and rest horizontally, and it is not easy to forget North, South, East, West, and up and down’.
That the large version of People in the Wind was bought by MoMA is itself a testament to how completely this image captured the zeitgeist of the times, a perfect blend of tension and optimism. Even more interesting, perhaps, is the list of buyers of this sculpture, one of two small maquettes Armitage made in advance of the large version sent to Venice: Alfred H. Barr, for his personal collection; Sir Philip Hendy, director of the National Gallery in London and the aesthete, publisher and patron E.C. (Peter) Gregory. Whoever owns the present work next will certainly be in exalted company indeed.
In 1952, only six years after he was de-mobbed from the army and thus finally able to embark on a career as an artist, Kenneth Armitage announced himself to the international art world with his showing at the Venice Biennale, a group of works that included the large version of People in the Wind (casts of which were bought by Peggy Guggenheim and Alfred Barr for MoMA) as well as Family Going for a Walk (a cast of which was also bought a few months later by Barr). Armitage and his contemporaries – Lynn Chadwick, William Turnbull, Eduardo Paolozzi, Reg Butler and Bernard Meadows –were presented by Herbert Read, the curator of the British Pavilion, as the ‘young Turks’ in counterpoint to the ‘grand old man’ of British sculpture, Henry Moore. In his introduction to the exhibition, Read sought to sum up what these young sculptors, whose work had a spiky, existential quality, had in common, in the process coining a phrase - the Geometry of Fear - that has been used ever since to describe the group. As People in the Wind elegantly demonstrates, however, there is very little ‘fear’ in Armitage’s work, quite the opposite. Spiky it may be, but what defines his figures is their stoicism, their sense of endurance and, above all perhaps, their warmth and spirit. People in the Wind was inspired by real life, a glimpse of a mother and her children crossing the street across from his studio window, struggling against a blustery wind. In this sculpture Armitage literally makes the figures tightly knit, thus turning them into a metaphor of family ties, proximity and protection.
It is this optimism and warmth that makes Armitage’s sculptures of this period so different from those of Reg Butler – perhaps the artist whose work is best described by the idea of a ‘Geometry of Fear’. Butler’s figures look up to a Cold War sky, watchful for the destruction that might rain down from it; they are stretched and stressed by forces seemingly out of their control. The etiolation of the figure in Armitage’s work does lend his figures a sense of fragility, but there is a strength too, so they stretch out to hold the space around them, combining their strength by forming little structures out of their limbs. As Armitage wrote in his artist’s statement for The New Decade, just one of the seminal survey shows of European art held at MoMA in the 1950s that featured his work, ‘gravity stiffens this world, we can touch and see with verticals and horizontals... we walk vertically and rest horizontally, and it is not easy to forget North, South, East, West, and up and down’.
That the large version of People in the Wind was bought by MoMA is itself a testament to how completely this image captured the zeitgeist of the times, a perfect blend of tension and optimism. Even more interesting, perhaps, is the list of buyers of this sculpture, one of two small maquettes Armitage made in advance of the large version sent to Venice: Alfred H. Barr, for his personal collection; Sir Philip Hendy, director of the National Gallery in London and the aesthete, publisher and patron E.C. (Peter) Gregory. Whoever owns the present work next will certainly be in exalted company indeed.