Sculptor Lynn Chadwick

Lynn Chadwick: Sculpture from the Ursinus College Collection

More than thirty years have passed since Lynn Chadwick burst into the international art world in 1956 by winning the first prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale. Chadwick, now considered the senior living British figurative sculptor and one of the most important British sculptors of the 20th century since Henry Moore, has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and has been the subject of several one-person exhibitions since 1950. His work has been celebrated throughout Europe, South America, and Asia. Lynn Chadwick: Sculpture from the Ursinus College Collection featured eleven (11) of Chadwick’s large scale bronze sculptures, along with smaller maquettes and drawings that graced the Knoxville Museum of Arts (KMA)’s North and South Garden, Entry Level Corridor Gallery, and great hall from July 10, 1998 until January 31, 1999 in the Clayton Building at 1050 World's Fair Park Drive in Knoxville, Tennessee 37916-1653 (Phone: 423-525-6101; Fax: 423-546-3635 -- accredited by the American Association of Museums). The works which comprised this exhibition are drawn from the permanent collection of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, and span the years 1954 to 1984. It was a comprehensive selection that chronicled themes prevalent in the artist's sculpture, beginning with pure abstraction articulated by pyramids, cylindrical forms and tripods, and moving to strong animal forms seated, striding, climbing or majestically static, enveloped by cloaks.

Chadwick's bronze sculptures are noted for their strong, monumental quality. They are at times intimidating, certainly intriguing, yet also familiar. In his figures, Chadwick envisioned complete frameworks to define his forms; the dichotomy of the mass of the torso of the body to the precariously thin legs which support it speaks to the sculptor's knowledge and attention to internal structure and balance; a product of his early education in architectural design.

Born in 1914 in London, England, Chadwick's early years were spent training and first working as an architectural draftsman, and then as a textile designer, with several architectural firms in London. Upon returning from service in the Royal Navy as a W.W.II pilot, he then designed his first mobile, creating sculptural forms linked by the kinetic movement of armatures. As he made the transition from producing textile, furniture, and structural designs, he continued to compose both mobiles and stabiles of metal and wood. Soon he was devoting himself fully to sculpting at the age of 35. In 1952, he produced his first solid sculptures and only three years later, in 1956, won the prestigious International Prize for sculpture at the XVIII Venice Biennale. At that time, Chadwick was simply one of the new generation of talented English sculptors. By now, Chadwick was already developing a vocabulary of personal images, including beasts, totemic forms, and majestic double figures. This international recognition, at a relatively young age and a the genesis of his career, was an acknowledgement by the larger art community of Chadwick's place in the realm of 20th century sculpture as well as of his potential. In a way, winning such a prize also served as a challenge to the artist to fully commit to the genre. As his mastered his medium, Chadwick’s work became more polished and flexible, and which he continued to experiment with over the next two decades. By the early 1980s, he was judged to be the "best figurative innovator at work today." Many of those early images continue to be an inspiration -- which he is still exploring.

Chadwick has an unceasing fascination with aspects of the human form and this exhibition showcased his sculptural progression, beginning with his earlier, more stoic and monolithic figures to his later pieces which explored the dynamic possibilities of motion. More often than not, visitors interact with the large-scale forms, fingering the smooth abdomen of the Elektra or the angular folds of the extended drapes of Walking Woman. It's a guessing game, too, as to whether the female is represented by a triangular head and the man by a square. Sculptures of a more intimate scale, such as Sitting Figures (sometimes known as Sitting Couple) and Diamond nevertheless portray a monumentality that is conveyed by the strength of the composition, the carriage of the figure, and the subtleties of the bronze medium which is essentially monochromatic. Chadwick manipulates the surface to capture light and shadow which articulate and add texture to the planes of metal. Perhaps the most striking feature of Chadwick's recent work is a new emphasis on movement. Figures like The Watchers that once stared forbiddingly at the viewer and tended toward stasis now stride confidently toward the viewer and their audience. This new energy is accentuated by the flowing robes that billow out behind the striding figures. According to one critic, many of his recent sculptures have attained a "near lyricism, that turns reality into a dreamspace."

For the last thirty years, Chadwick has lived at Lypiatt Manor, deep in the heart of Gloucestershire, keeping his distance from the art world. Despite his use of the human figure, he describes his work as abstract; beyond this he is reluctant to analyze its deeper meaning. British sculptor Lynn Chadwick flatly refuses to discuss the meanings, associations or possible interpretations of his distinctive metallic figures. Yet, clearly, adapting and distorting the human form is one of the most effective and provocative strategies an artist can adopt to win a response from the public. Unlike the rounded figures of certain sculptors from the generation preceding his own (with the possibly influential exception of Jacob Epstein's famous Rock Drill), Chadwick's characters are spiky, angular, abrasive and crystalline. Sometimes they recall crustaceans or insects, sometimes armored warriors or science-fiction aliens. Faces are blank facets, expressionless. Chadwick shares these qualities with other sculptors of his time, both in Britain (Armitage and Butler) and internationally. Protests at a dehumanized world? Expressions of alienation? The artist remains dourly inscrutable behind his own blank mask of a welder's visor.

This exhibition was organized by the International Arts and Artists organization, Washington, D.C., from the collection of Ursinus College.