Children by the Sea

Details

KENNETH ARMITAGE, R.A. (1916-2002)
Children by the Sea
bronze with a dark brown and green patina
17 in. (43.2 cm.) high
Conceived in 1953 and cast in an edition of 8.

Provenance

with Gimpel Fils, London, where purchased by Mr and Mrs Allan D. Emil, New York, by 1958, and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

M.R. Trier, 'Art News from Chicago', Art News, May 1955, pp. 10, 58, another cast illustrated.
R. Penrose, Kenneth Armitage, Amriswil, 1960, p. 30, pl. 10.
A.M. Hammacher, Modern English Sculpture, London, 1967, n.p., pl. 120, another cast illustrated.
T. Woollcombe (ed.), Kenneth Armitage: Life and Work, London, 1997, p. 143, no. KA42.
R.A. Born, exhibition catalogue, From Blast to Pop: Aspects of Modern British Art, 1915-1965, Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, 1997, pp. 81, 132, no. 55, another cast illustrated.
J. Scott and C. Milburn, The Sculpture of Kenneth Armitage, London, 2016, pp. 39-41, 100, no. 43, another cast illustrated.

Exhibited

New York, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, Kenneth Armitage, March 1954, another cast exhibited.
Chicago, British Council, Arts Club of Chicago, An Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings by Young British Sculptors, March 1955, no. 7, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, April - May 1955; Cincinnati, Contemporary Arts Center, September - October 1955; New York, Albright Art Gallery, November - December 1955; and Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, January - February 1956.
Venice, British Council, XXIX Biennale, Kenneth Armitage, S.W. Hayter, William Scott, June - September 1958, no. 82: this exhibition travelled to Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, November - December 1958; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, January 1959; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, March 1959, no. 6; Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, April - May 1959; and Rotterdam, Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, June 1959, no. 6.
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Kenneth Armitage: A Retrospective Exhibition, July - August 1959, no. 14.
Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, From Blast to Pop: Aspects of Modern British Art, 1915-1965, April - June 1997, no. 55, another cast exhibited.

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Lot Essay

We are very grateful to James Scott for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Conceived in 1953, at a time when the effect of the War was still being felt acutely in Britain, Children by the Sea belongs to Armitage's exhilarating and distinguishing sculptures of joyful children, whose bodies are linked and united to become one collaborative mass.

When shown at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York in March 1954, The New York Times noted: 'The young British sculptor Kenneth Armitage makes a first American appearance at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery with abstract bronzes of figures that stylistically recall the mysterious dehumanisations of Alberto Giacommetti and Henry Moore. His distortions are radical; heads are reduced to pin-heads and arms and legs to matchsticks. Most impressive are the groups, and it is in Children by the Sea that the happiest balance between shape and mass occurs. Nothing representational is found, but the movement is absolutely natural and convincing. We might be looking at the long dramatic shadows of children that are cast on the beach by a low sun'.

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