The London Art Fair 2015 offers collectors the tantalizing possibility of owning important smaller scaled works by well-known twentieth-century sculptors – Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, Elisabeth Frink, Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi – the latter being the subject of the keynote panel Conversation.
For those seeking momentum to their perspective, sculptures from the current generation of artists provide a varied narrative with a distinctly gentler curve. Works by Anna Gillespie, Christopher Marvell and Helen Sinclair reflect a variety of transitions progressing away from the abstract forms of the last century.
New works continue to be inspired by feminine forms. In silhouette, Angela Hunter’s bronze cast athletic female is Pushing Against the Barrier (2014), a pose which inspires intriguing interpretations. A strengthening of the mind, the body or both as the horizontal force of repellent pressure is palpably exerted. The arms are raised in parallel with the hands gestured to ‘halt’ defining the limit of tolerance.
The ethereal blue of Cathy Lewis’ slate jesmonite Broderie Anglais (2014) presents an infant poised between leaving her infant years and stepping, in her exquisite lace shoes, into her early childhood. Oriental teacups ornament the child’s tassel-tied hair and her jumpsuit ballons around her slender body. These impregnated textures are the tactile signature of this sculptor’s works.
An innovative mixed media video sculpture Multi-Fairy (2015) by Davy and Kristin McGuire is pure fantasy. Held within a wall mounted dark wooden box, a Duchamp referenced glass jar has a wired lid that rests upon an orange air-tight seal. Contained with are a series of Disney like butterfly-winged Tinkerbelles; each damsel deconstructs as pixelated fairy-dust at the tinkling sound of a bell, to be replaced by another of twenty five fluttering illusions.
Whether mixed media is strictly sculpture has been argued, yet such creativity does enhance capacity for pioneering collectors.
