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Lot Essay
'With each method I have said what I had to say as well as I could. The actual technique acted as a guide, and gave its character to the work. I emphasise the character which the technique gives. There are limitations - I stress the character imposed by the limitations [...] Apart from these practical considerations I do not analyse my work intellectually. When I start to work, I wait till I feel what I want to do; and I know I am working by the presence or lack of a rhythmic impulse. I think that to attempt to analyse the ability to draw ideas from their subconscious source would almost certainly interfere with that ability' (L. Chadwick quoted in A. Bowness, Lynn Chadwick, London, 1962).
In the 1970s Chadwick returned to the human form, the subject becoming central again to his oeuvre. He created combinations of figural groups of up to four, five even six male and female figures. The figures are sitting, standing, and reclining: in this way Chadwick opens new possibilities of exploring spatial relationships between forms. Chadwick always looked for geometry and tension in his sculpture, with the aim of avoiding the static. In the case of Pair of Sitting Figures III, one of a series of pairs of sitting figures that he created in 1972, Chadwick has been particularly successful in portraying an alert intimacy between the male and female figure. The touching shoulders and symmetrically folded legs give the sense of figures caught unawares, and sitting bolt upright, as if surprised. When viewed alongside the other pairs of sitting couples that he conceived in 1972, Chadwick’s ability as one of the leading British sculptors of the 20th Century is immediately confirmed. Although all very similarly modelled, with subtle differences in the leg positioning and the angles of the heads, as well as the surface of the bronzes, each work portrays different sensations and emotions. A year later Chadwick was celebrated by a retrospective at the Tate.
In the 1970s Chadwick returned to the human form, the subject becoming central again to his oeuvre. He created combinations of figural groups of up to four, five even six male and female figures. The figures are sitting, standing, and reclining: in this way Chadwick opens new possibilities of exploring spatial relationships between forms. Chadwick always looked for geometry and tension in his sculpture, with the aim of avoiding the static. In the case of Pair of Sitting Figures III, one of a series of pairs of sitting figures that he created in 1972, Chadwick has been particularly successful in portraying an alert intimacy between the male and female figure. The touching shoulders and symmetrically folded legs give the sense of figures caught unawares, and sitting bolt upright, as if surprised. When viewed alongside the other pairs of sitting couples that he conceived in 1972, Chadwick’s ability as one of the leading British sculptors of the 20th Century is immediately confirmed. Although all very similarly modelled, with subtle differences in the leg positioning and the angles of the heads, as well as the surface of the bronzes, each work portrays different sensations and emotions. A year later Chadwick was celebrated by a retrospective at the Tate.