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Lynn Chadwick
Pyramids and Beasts
Lynn Chadwick was one of a number of sculptors, including Kenneth Armitage and
Reg Butler – the young generation post-Henry Moore – that came to prominence in
the fifties, and were promoted internationally, largely by the British Council
in group and solo exhibitions. Although not generally known for working outside
the realm of traditional sculptors’ materials, Chadwick took Formica into his
work for a series of sculptures on the theme of Pyramids. Formica: a new
material post-war, brightly coloured and wipe-clean, the hygienic plastic
surface adorning new kitchens of the 1950s and 1960s. Not just in kitchens, but
also in cafes and coffee bars that were keeping pace with the new energy and
optimism of the era of Harold Macmillan’s premiership and the then current maxim
that ‘Most people have never had had it so good.’
Eva Chadwick, the artist’s widow, recorded that Chadwick’s Pyramids were made in
wood and covered in variously coloured Formica, and were exhibited at
Marlborough Fine Art in 1966. This exhibition at Canary Wharf marks the first
time they have been shown in public since then. The Pyramids are seemingly
different from Chadwick’s other sculpture, sharp and colourful when compared
with bronze, but they link with his fundamental vision. Viewing them some 48
years after they were made, the once vibrant red has faded to a softer rose; the
yellows and greens are also now more subtle hues. But the forms are still sharp,
and they echo both former sculptures of Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls, and early
Beasts. They are architectural, and work well in architectural settings. As a
group they are figures, seen individually they become geometrically abstract.
The split Pyramids are more complex and those with facets of different colours
work differently in spatial arrangements.
Chadwick took the idea of the Pyramids further, when in 1968 he was invited to
participate in the Quattordicesima Treinnale of Milan. He based his exhibit on
the Pyramids he showed in 1966, making the new forms on site in tough cardboard.
The principal theme of the exhibition was The Greater Number, and Chadwick’s
exhibit was entitled Large-scale Figurative Representation. The organisers wrote
in their catalogue, ‘All Chadwick’s proposals are presented in a form of plastic
art. The section takes the form of a display of large sculptures for extensive
areas which are designed to play their part in the design of the new metropolis.
The sculptures assembled here are of an elementary nature, and strictly in the
form of geometrical figures which appear to represent fantastic animals or
shapes of bodies in space. There are thirteen solid pyramid shaped objects of
varying dimension, the sides of which are painted in different colours.’
During the late 1960s Chadwick also made Pyramid sculptures in bronze. Their
surfaces exhibit more texture than the smooth Formica pieces, and some are
pierced with circular holes, others are conjoined or split.
Lynn Chadwick made his first Beast sculptures in 1953: Small Beast in iron and
glass, a unique sculpture in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte
Moderna e Contemporanea Rome; and Idiomorphic Beast in welded iron, again a
unique sculpture, in the collection of the City of Bristol Museum and Art
Gallery. Both are spiky, alert forms with geometrical attributes. The Beast
sculptures in this exhibition date from 1990 and are made from welded stainless
steel. They are fully three-dimensional, and when viewed from different
standpoints offer varying characteristics that complete the picture of
individual animals or animal types. Beasts crouch and rise, they stretch and
howl, they may be refined or muscular. Chadwick has expressed animal nature with
minimal means in these works. Their scale is impressive and their presence is
commanding. Crouching Beast II is ready to spring, its form full of potential
motion. Movement had always been of interest to Chadwick, whether in his early
mobile sculptures and dancing figures, or as in the beasts, where movement may
be held in check or is fully expressed.
Chadwick began a series of stainless steel sculptures in 1988, in which he
reinterpreted themes he had worked formerly in bronze – animals and the human
figure. In his Postscript to the second edition of Lynn Chadwick Sculptor, the
complete illustrated catalogue of his work, published in 1997, Dennis Farr wrote
of the Beasts, ‘By using stainless steel, Chadwick has been able to emphasise
the hard, angular qualities that have often been present in his bronzes.
Profiles appear sharper, the geometrical construction of the interlocking
triangular planes are more insistent.’
The hard, reflective stainless steel was cut and assembled by technicians
working from three-dimensional diagrams. These elements were assembled over
steel armatures, each facet of the stainless steel reflecting varying light and
immediate surroundings. The sculptures become both part of their environment and
a sharp presence within it. Chadwick‘s artistic progress was measured, and in
these pieces while returning to past subjects, he developed a new and dynamic
form of expression.
Lynn Chadwick was born in Barnes, London in 1914. He trained and worked as a
draughtsman in a number of architectural practices in London, then spent some
time as a farm labourer before volunteering for the Fleet Air Arm and gaining a
commission (1941-44). After the war he produced textile, furniture and
architectural designs, and his first mobile sculpture constructed from aluminium
and balsa wood was shown at a Building Trades Exhibition in 1947. His first solo
exhibition was held at Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, in 1950.
Chadwick was commissioned to make a number of mobiles for a wide range of
clients over the next few years, and in 1953 made his first solid sculpture, the
year in which he was one of twelve semi-finalists for the Unknown Political
Prisoner International Sculpture Competition, in which he was awarded and
honourable mention and prize. By 1956, his reputation as a sculptor was
confirmed internationally when he won the International Prize for Sculpture at
the XXVIII Venice Biennale. More prizes and accolades followed as his career
developed, including being awarded the CBE in 1964. He was also created
Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.
Lynn Chadwick made his home and studio at Lypiatt Park, Gloucestershire, from
1958 until his death in 2003. There he created a permanent exhibition of his
work in the grounds: the rolling Gloucestershire countryside being home to his
monumental sculptures, including the Beasts; and the house the location for
smaller sculptures, and the Pyramids.
Canary Wharf plc is indebted to Mrs Eva Chadwick, the artists’ widow; his
daughter, Sarah Marchant; and Peter Osborne of Berkley Square Gallery, London,
for facilitating this exhibition.
Ann Elliott
2004
Exhibition dates 13/09/04 to 26/10/04 One Canada Square
& Jubilee Park, Canary Wharf, London E14 (Jubilee Line)
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