Melanie Veasey - Sculpture Writings

Christopher Marvell @ Portland Gallery 2015

Capturing his patient observations of the natural world, Marvell’s works eliminates extraneous detail, whilst retaining familiar characteristics. His whimsical animals, birds, and figures are scaled for interiors and contemplative garden spaces. Marvell’s craftsmanship renders the weight of bronze as light, contemporary and tactile, washed in warm opaque rose-beige or misted-grey patinas. Soft silhouettes define the gentle curves of these minimalist sculptures, encouraging the gaze to travel across delicate surface indentations. Scratched and pitted as features, feathers and fur, the fine serrations maintain the simplicity of presentation. Collectively, Marvell’s sculptures convey a sense of fanciful and playful intent.

London Art Fair 2015 – A Sculptural Narrative

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,…

Richard Tuttle’s I Don’t Know – The Weave of Textile Language (2014)

The chasm of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall becomes the fantastic other world of an unfathomable ocean, where a scaled whimsical seahorse rises and quivers almost imperceptibly within the hidden undercurrents of the depths. Shafts of light ignite the blazing colours of swathed saffron wings and cerise body as its metamorphosis begins. Loose woven material is randomly pinned along the partially covered rigid aircraft span that propels this creature and, while the body binding appears haphazard, it shrouds the central core. Engaging with the fundamental elements of the universe it may yet rise to soar beyond the earth and through the…

John Farnham’s Mayan Family (2014)

Photos © John Farnham 2014 http://www.johnfarnham.co.uk/ Soapstone, H25 cm x W34 cm x D20cm Inspired by his extensive travels, John Farnham’s direct carvings originate from cultural images, absorbed then seemingly forgotten until they are transformed into compact compositions in stone. John re-interprets figurative imagery to create distinctive sculptures. Mayan Family contrasts the masculinity and femininity of the historic peoples of Mesoamerica. The semi-abstract heroic male head is covered with a polished helmet, bearing confident linear incisions which convey forward movement along the horizontal plane. The partial view of the upper face intensifies the determined outward gaze. The female shields a…

Elisabeth Frink’s Walking Madonna (1981)

In October 1981, the Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, wrote to his parishioners to inform them that ‘a new resident will be observed in the Close.’((The Dean continued, ‘This figure symbolises … human dignity and creativity over militarism and totalitarian disregard for human dignity and rights.’ Stephen Gardiner, Frink (London: Harper Collins, 1998), pp.226-7.)) The initially temporary figure subsequently became a permanent inhabitant of the genteel eighteenth-century Cathedral Close. At the centre of the Close is a sizable lawned square, surrounded by historic houses, including the Queen Anne period Mompesson House, which is now owned by the National Trust. Walking…

Antony Gormley’s Another Place (1997)

100 iron men stand on a beach. Gormley’s Another Place (1997) was intended as a temporary installation at Crosby Beach in Lancashire. Sefton Council controversially sought to remove these sculptures, however, such was their popularity that funding was raised privately by the South Sefton Development Trust to ensure that Another Place remained on permanent display.((Cast by two foundries, Hargreaves Foundry in Halifax, West Yorkshire and Joseph and Jesse Siddons Foundry, West Bromwich, the 100 figures each weighing 1400 lbs that comprise Another Place were designed to be viewed against the ebb and flow of tidal submersion on the beach. Since…

SCULPTURE SCRIPT