£6,930
MODERN MADE: Modern & Post-War Art, Design & Studio Ceramics | 695
Auction: 28 October 2022 at 11:00 BST
unique, initialled and dated (to underside of base), brass
Provenance: Commissioned by the artist George Dannatt and thence by family descent;
Askew Art, London, where acquired by the present owner.
Exhibited: Maltby Contemporary Art, Winchester;
Rosenberg & Co., New York.
Literature: George Dannatt and Friends, exhibition catalogue, Osborne Samuel, London, 2015, p.50, illustrated p.62;
Modern British Masters, Rosenberg & Co., New York,2017.
Note: This unique sculpture, dating from 1969, was a commission from Denis Mitchell’s friend, the art connoisseur turned painter George Dannatt. Initially Mitchell’s sculptural work was characterised by direct carving of wood and stone, skills developed in his war service work in the Geevor tin mine, before he spent ten years as assistant to Barbara Hepworth. Mitchell explained; ‘we carved side by side . . . I was her hands.’ By the late 1960s he had developed an assured approach in the casting of both brass and bronze to create polished and dynamic sculpture. His love of pure form shines through in this deceptively simple work; the jagged edges, pierced holes and shining warm surface divide, reflect and reveal the light and space around and behind the slim form, conjuring a potent presence much greater than its stature.