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Lot Essay
Conceived and cast in 1988, Back to Venice belongs to a decisive moment in Chadwick’s career and is inseparable from his profound and transformative relationship with the Venice Biennale. His first appearance there, in 1952, formed part of the British Pavilion’s now-historic presentation of sculpture that prompted the critic Herbert Read to coin the phrase ‘Geometry of Fear’. In the shadow of the Second World War, a new generation of British sculptors emerged whose angular, spiked and tension-filled figures seemed to articulate the anxieties of a fractured generation. Chadwick’s work, with its welded armatures and sharply defined planes, was central to this shift.
The impact of that exhibition was immediate and international. Chadwick’s figures, at once archaic and startlingly modern, appeared to reject both pastoral nostalgia and classical monumentality. Instead, they asserted a new sculptural language built from structure, space and psychological intensity. Venice thus marked Chadwick’s arrival on the world stage.
‘Chadwick has been one of the revelations of the Biennale. Quite apart from the distinguished and highly original quality of his imagination, it is the beauty and sensitivity of execution that impresses’
- Sir Alan Bowness
Just four years later, Chadwick returned to the Biennale to represent Great Britain alongside the painter Ivon Hitchens. He was asked to stage a one-man exhibition of his sculptures in the country’s pavilion at the 1956 Biennale. The choice of Chadwick as the sole representation of British sculpture at the international exhibition was unexpected, not least by the artist himself. As he explained: ‘Being included in the Venice Biennale was a shock. I was really, in my own mind, not ready for such a thing. When I was told [by the British Council] that I was going to represent Britain, I said ‘Wouldn’t it be better if I shared it with someone else?’’ (the artist quoted in E. Lucie-Smith, Chadwick, Gloucestershire, 1997, p. 26). At this stage in his career, Chadwick had been sculpting for less than a decade, and had only received his first exhibition in 1950. He felt unprepared for the weight of responsibility that a solo-representation carried, but nevertheless threw himself into preparations for the event. The exhibition was roundly praised on its opening, with numerous critics singling Chadwick out for commendation. Alan Bowness in his review of the event wrote: ‘Chadwick has been one of the revelations of the Biennale. Quite apart from the distinguished and highly original quality of his imagination, it is the beauty and sensitivity of execution that impresses’ (A. Bowness, quoted in D. Farr, Lynn Chadwick, London, 2003, p. 44). Chadwick won the Grand Prix for Sculpture, beating more established figures including Alberto Giacometti and Giacomo Manzù, to become the youngest post-war recipient of the award. In Venice, Chadwick’s work was recognised as a defining voice in post-war sculpture.
In recognition of this extraordinary moment at the festival thirty-two years previously, the British Council invited Chadwick to return to Venice in 1988 and create a large sculpture for the garden of the British Pavilion, to be sited alongside works by Anthony Caro, Phillip King and Joe Tilson. Wittily titled Back to Venice, the resulting artwork represents the culmination of a number of the thematic concerns and motifs which had preoccupied Chadwick across the intervening decades, particularly the seated couple, and the tensions and relationships that arise between two forms when juxtaposed alongside one another. Presenting two frontally posed figures seated on a bench, the sculpture is imbued with an innate stillness and serenity. Both characters carry a distinctly regal air, their monumental forms appearing magisterial as they gaze outwards towards the viewer. This sense of stillness, coupled with their direct frontality, recalls the rich art historical heritage of double portraiture, and draws on examples of sculptural portraits of couples from Ancient Egyptian culture, a subject which also inspired Chadwick’s contemporary, Henry Moore.
In Back to Venice, the two forms generate a shared energy, as their bodies seem to respond and reflect one another across the precise space which separates them. The male seems to lean very slightly to his right, an impression enhanced by the fact that his left leg extends forwards past the other. This causes the line of his shoulders to tilt upwards towards the centre of the sculpture, a pose echoed by that of the female figure. In her case, her left shoulder drops towards her hips, giving her an asymmetrical pose as she responds to her partner. These angles and distances are carefully calculated to instil the figures with a certain ‘attitude,’ an element of sculpture which Chadwick saw as essential to the power and character of his figures. Through the angles of the figure, the subtle bending of their neck, the positioning of the head or the weight within the body, Chadwick believed he could make his sculptures ‘speak’: ‘If you can get their physical attitudes right,’ Chadwick explained, ‘you can spell out a message’ (Chadwick, quoted in M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Surrey, 2014, p. 147).
These subtle shifts in posture imbue the sculpture with a decidedly human presence, despite the fact that the two figures are constructed through a series of angular abstract forms. In this way, Chadwick moves beyond a focus on the formal qualities of the human body, beyond their distillation into abstract forms, to a more in-depth examination of the relationship that exists between his two figures, exploring how they relate to one another on an emotional level as well as in a formal or physical sense. Although they do not touch one another, nor engage in eye contact, there is an intimacy to the relationship of the couple, a sense of connectedness achieved in the careful balancing of their forms. This internal tension is a clear development of Chadwick’s artistic vision, which builds on the formal and technical innovations of the artist’s youth and marries it with the careful observation and distillation of human nature that experience and age bring.
Today, Back to Venice endures as one of Chadwick’s most recognisable and resolved achievements. Its title binds it indelibly to the city that first crowned him an international figure. More than a commemorative gesture, it is a declaration of sustained creative power, an artist returning, not in nostalgia, but in mastery.
Back to Venice is the first lifetime cast to appear at auction and is being sold on behalf of the family of the distinguished chemist and academic, Dr Robert A. Holton (1944-2025), whose pioneering work in organic synthesis enabled large-scale production of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, without sourcing its active compound from the endangered Pacific Yew tree. Working in his laboratory at Florida State University, Dr Holton constructed the drug in 1993 by mimicking the chemistry of the plant in a technique he called the metal alkoxide process. Now one of the most commonly used cancer drugs, Taxol has transformed cancer treatment and gone on to save countless lives. His research also saved the species of Pacific Yew tree, as he devised a method to synthesise the drug without using any material from the tree. Dr Holton went on to accomplish the total synthesis of several other complex natural products receiving numerous honours for his scientific contributions. In 2015, he was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame and three years later was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors for producing what the New York Times described as 'arguably the most important drug cobbled together by human hands'.
The impact of that exhibition was immediate and international. Chadwick’s figures, at once archaic and startlingly modern, appeared to reject both pastoral nostalgia and classical monumentality. Instead, they asserted a new sculptural language built from structure, space and psychological intensity. Venice thus marked Chadwick’s arrival on the world stage.
‘Chadwick has been one of the revelations of the Biennale. Quite apart from the distinguished and highly original quality of his imagination, it is the beauty and sensitivity of execution that impresses’
- Sir Alan Bowness
Just four years later, Chadwick returned to the Biennale to represent Great Britain alongside the painter Ivon Hitchens. He was asked to stage a one-man exhibition of his sculptures in the country’s pavilion at the 1956 Biennale. The choice of Chadwick as the sole representation of British sculpture at the international exhibition was unexpected, not least by the artist himself. As he explained: ‘Being included in the Venice Biennale was a shock. I was really, in my own mind, not ready for such a thing. When I was told [by the British Council] that I was going to represent Britain, I said ‘Wouldn’t it be better if I shared it with someone else?’’ (the artist quoted in E. Lucie-Smith, Chadwick, Gloucestershire, 1997, p. 26). At this stage in his career, Chadwick had been sculpting for less than a decade, and had only received his first exhibition in 1950. He felt unprepared for the weight of responsibility that a solo-representation carried, but nevertheless threw himself into preparations for the event. The exhibition was roundly praised on its opening, with numerous critics singling Chadwick out for commendation. Alan Bowness in his review of the event wrote: ‘Chadwick has been one of the revelations of the Biennale. Quite apart from the distinguished and highly original quality of his imagination, it is the beauty and sensitivity of execution that impresses’ (A. Bowness, quoted in D. Farr, Lynn Chadwick, London, 2003, p. 44). Chadwick won the Grand Prix for Sculpture, beating more established figures including Alberto Giacometti and Giacomo Manzù, to become the youngest post-war recipient of the award. In Venice, Chadwick’s work was recognised as a defining voice in post-war sculpture.
In recognition of this extraordinary moment at the festival thirty-two years previously, the British Council invited Chadwick to return to Venice in 1988 and create a large sculpture for the garden of the British Pavilion, to be sited alongside works by Anthony Caro, Phillip King and Joe Tilson. Wittily titled Back to Venice, the resulting artwork represents the culmination of a number of the thematic concerns and motifs which had preoccupied Chadwick across the intervening decades, particularly the seated couple, and the tensions and relationships that arise between two forms when juxtaposed alongside one another. Presenting two frontally posed figures seated on a bench, the sculpture is imbued with an innate stillness and serenity. Both characters carry a distinctly regal air, their monumental forms appearing magisterial as they gaze outwards towards the viewer. This sense of stillness, coupled with their direct frontality, recalls the rich art historical heritage of double portraiture, and draws on examples of sculptural portraits of couples from Ancient Egyptian culture, a subject which also inspired Chadwick’s contemporary, Henry Moore.
In Back to Venice, the two forms generate a shared energy, as their bodies seem to respond and reflect one another across the precise space which separates them. The male seems to lean very slightly to his right, an impression enhanced by the fact that his left leg extends forwards past the other. This causes the line of his shoulders to tilt upwards towards the centre of the sculpture, a pose echoed by that of the female figure. In her case, her left shoulder drops towards her hips, giving her an asymmetrical pose as she responds to her partner. These angles and distances are carefully calculated to instil the figures with a certain ‘attitude,’ an element of sculpture which Chadwick saw as essential to the power and character of his figures. Through the angles of the figure, the subtle bending of their neck, the positioning of the head or the weight within the body, Chadwick believed he could make his sculptures ‘speak’: ‘If you can get their physical attitudes right,’ Chadwick explained, ‘you can spell out a message’ (Chadwick, quoted in M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Surrey, 2014, p. 147).
These subtle shifts in posture imbue the sculpture with a decidedly human presence, despite the fact that the two figures are constructed through a series of angular abstract forms. In this way, Chadwick moves beyond a focus on the formal qualities of the human body, beyond their distillation into abstract forms, to a more in-depth examination of the relationship that exists between his two figures, exploring how they relate to one another on an emotional level as well as in a formal or physical sense. Although they do not touch one another, nor engage in eye contact, there is an intimacy to the relationship of the couple, a sense of connectedness achieved in the careful balancing of their forms. This internal tension is a clear development of Chadwick’s artistic vision, which builds on the formal and technical innovations of the artist’s youth and marries it with the careful observation and distillation of human nature that experience and age bring.
Today, Back to Venice endures as one of Chadwick’s most recognisable and resolved achievements. Its title binds it indelibly to the city that first crowned him an international figure. More than a commemorative gesture, it is a declaration of sustained creative power, an artist returning, not in nostalgia, but in mastery.
Back to Venice is the first lifetime cast to appear at auction and is being sold on behalf of the family of the distinguished chemist and academic, Dr Robert A. Holton (1944-2025), whose pioneering work in organic synthesis enabled large-scale production of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, without sourcing its active compound from the endangered Pacific Yew tree. Working in his laboratory at Florida State University, Dr Holton constructed the drug in 1993 by mimicking the chemistry of the plant in a technique he called the metal alkoxide process. Now one of the most commonly used cancer drugs, Taxol has transformed cancer treatment and gone on to save countless lives. His research also saved the species of Pacific Yew tree, as he devised a method to synthesise the drug without using any material from the tree. Dr Holton went on to accomplish the total synthesis of several other complex natural products receiving numerous honours for his scientific contributions. In 2015, he was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame and three years later was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors for producing what the New York Times described as 'arguably the most important drug cobbled together by human hands'.