BERNARD MEADOWS (BRITISH 1915-2005) §
RELIEF: THE WATCHERS. 1966 (BM99)
Estimate: £1,500 - £2,500
Auction: Modern Made Day 2 - Lots 124 to 456 - Friday 02 May at 11:00
Description
monogrammed (lower right), inscribed by Artist First idea for Molloy, Saml Beckett (to reverse), edition of 6 plus 1, bronze
15 1/2 x 11 1/4 in/ 39.4 x 28.5 cm
Provenance
The Artist;
Gimpel Fils, London.
Footnote
Exhibited:
Gimpel Fils, London, Bernard Meadows, 9 June - 26 August 2016.
Literature:
Bowness, Alan, Bernard Meadows: Sculpture and Drawings, Lund Humphries, London, 1995, p. 144, no.99 (plaster illustrated).
In the 1960s, Meadows did not continue to plough the ‘Geometry of Fear’ furrow, much as perhaps his gallery and the market would have liked. Instead, like his contemporary Kenneth Armitage, he looked to find a new sculptural vocabulary that spoke to the nascent optimism of the 1960s. An element of joy returns. Sculptures such as Relief: The Watchers are classic Meadows of this period. Although superficially abstract, their strong anthropomorphism is clear, the rounded forms being heads (with eyes), although slippery enough to also connote bellies or even an entire body reduced to a singular form. This shifting nature of what the forms could be is enhanced by the smooth surfaces. In contrast to his 1950s sculpture, there are no jagged edges to arrest the eye, to turn you back on yourself. Instead, Meadows’ sculpture flows with you and the space surrounding it. And in this way his work returns to the conceptual world occupied by his former employer and mentor, Henry Moore.