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Lot Essay
A drawing of five sculptures, marked for photography, and inscribed, probably later, 'Rue Visconti E Paolozzi 1947' (sold Sotheby's, London, 6 February 1985, lot 505) includes Table Sculpture (Growth). A plaster version was probably one of two free-standing sculptures (the other being Forms on a Bow) which were shown with two bas-reliefs in the third 'Les Mains ébloies' exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris, in October 1949 (no. 31 or 32); it was then at the ICA, London in Aspects of British Art, 1950-1. Table Sculpture (Growth) was cast at the same time as Two Forms on a Rod which was also conceived in Paris. A foundry photograph which dates from the early 1950s shows Paolozzi with metal versions of both sculptures (Paolozzi Archive, Dean Gallery, Edinburgh).
The title Growth relates to Paolozzi's interest in botanical and cellular forms, in particular their scientific study and microphotography illustrated in D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Growth and Form (1917, revised edition 1942), a book then much discussed in Herbert Read's circle in London. Table Sculpture (Growth) suggests natural forms, above and below either the ground or the sea. When Paolozzi conceived the sculpture in Paris in 1948 he intended to make Thompson's book the subject of an exhibition. By the summer of 1949 he had abandoned the idea and the exhibition was eventually realised by Richard Hamilton at the ICA in London in the summer of 1951.
Table Sculpture (Growth), together with Forms on a Bow and Forms on a Rod, comprises the trio of sculptures relating to D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Growth and Form, and which owe their material development to Giacometti's surrealist sculptures of 1930-4. A fourth sculpture, Icarus also conceived in 1948 (bronze, unique, private collection) is smaller than Growth, but shares the same table design, a motif which also derived from Giacometti's sculpture.
We are very grateful to Robin Spencer, author of the forthcoming Paolozzi catalogue raisonné, for providing the catalogue entries for lots 148-50.
The title Growth relates to Paolozzi's interest in botanical and cellular forms, in particular their scientific study and microphotography illustrated in D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Growth and Form (1917, revised edition 1942), a book then much discussed in Herbert Read's circle in London. Table Sculpture (Growth) suggests natural forms, above and below either the ground or the sea. When Paolozzi conceived the sculpture in Paris in 1948 he intended to make Thompson's book the subject of an exhibition. By the summer of 1949 he had abandoned the idea and the exhibition was eventually realised by Richard Hamilton at the ICA in London in the summer of 1951.
Table Sculpture (Growth), together with Forms on a Bow and Forms on a Rod, comprises the trio of sculptures relating to D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Growth and Form, and which owe their material development to Giacometti's surrealist sculptures of 1930-4. A fourth sculpture, Icarus also conceived in 1948 (bronze, unique, private collection) is smaller than Growth, but shares the same table design, a motif which also derived from Giacometti's sculpture.
We are very grateful to Robin Spencer, author of the forthcoming Paolozzi catalogue raisonné, for providing the catalogue entries for lots 148-50.