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Ensayo del lote
Cloaked in ceremonial folds, Chadwick’s monumental figure glides towards the viewer with the quiet authority of a procession leader. At almost 2 metres tall, she powerfully commands the space around her: her head sharp, expressionless, pyramidal, her form reduced to a few powerful lines. Only the faint swelling of the chest signals that she is a woman. The great cloak falls from her shoulders in deep, geometric folds, parting just enough to reveal a glimpse of the legs beneath, then gathering in soft pools at her heels. Conceived in 1978, Cloaked Figure IX brings together the abstract, angular forms and striking presence of Chadwick’s mature style.
Chadwick first hinted at clothing in the 1950s with his Teddy Boy and Girl series, which celebrated the flamboyant Neo-Edwardian fashions of working-class youth. As his work developed, the garments grew more dramatic, from skirts and tunics to sharply pointed collars, and finally to the voluminous cloaks of the 1970s. Often shown billowing in an unseen wind, as in his Jubilee sculptures, these cloaks enabled him to introduce sweeping curves into an otherwise angular vocabulary. He produced many variations, with the fabric streaming behind, swept to one side or, as here, ‘falling from the shoulders in ceremonial amplitude’ (M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Farnham, 2014, p. 156).
In Cloaked Figure IX the fabric is almost entirely still. Chadwick studied the weight and properties of different cloths closely, and here he chose one that hangs heavily, suggesting ceremonial robes. Rather than flowing curves, the folds are cut into crisp, grooved lines that echo the sharp set of the shoulders and the firm stance of his figure’s legs. The cloak reinforces the angularity of the body beneath it, wrapping the figure like a second skin. It also gives the figure a sense of movement. Her body is static, yet the pooled folds at her heels suggest the path she has just crossed, and she seems to glide towards us as if in a ceremonial procession. The sculpture is at once still and in motion, and this tension gives her a sense of purpose, as she moves towards an unknown destination.
Chadwick believed that posture said more than expression. He used the tilt of the neck, the position of the head and the distribution of weight to convey a regal presence. As he explained, ‘The important thing in my figures is always the attitude – what the figures are expressing through their actual stance. They talk, as it were, and this is something a lot of people don’t understand’ (quoted in E. Lucie-Smith, Chadwick, Gloucestershire, 1997, p. 31). By stripping away detail, he heightens the figure’s anonymity and mystery, achieving immense grandeur and presence with remarkable economy of form.
From the mid-1970s Chadwick spoke of his new figures as ‘Presences’, rather than the ‘Watchers’ of earlier years. They were about being rather than doing, and he wanted them to speak through the relationship they set up with people: ‘If you can get their physical attitudes right you can spell out a message’ (quoted in M. Bird, op. cit., p. 147). Unlike many of his figures, Cloaked Figure IX stands alone, without a male counterpart, yet her presence is no less powerful. At this scale her full attitude cannot be grasped from a single viewpoint. The viewer must walk around her to take in the full majesty of the cloak, so that Chadwick, has us do the walking while she holds her ground.
Chadwick first hinted at clothing in the 1950s with his Teddy Boy and Girl series, which celebrated the flamboyant Neo-Edwardian fashions of working-class youth. As his work developed, the garments grew more dramatic, from skirts and tunics to sharply pointed collars, and finally to the voluminous cloaks of the 1970s. Often shown billowing in an unseen wind, as in his Jubilee sculptures, these cloaks enabled him to introduce sweeping curves into an otherwise angular vocabulary. He produced many variations, with the fabric streaming behind, swept to one side or, as here, ‘falling from the shoulders in ceremonial amplitude’ (M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Farnham, 2014, p. 156).
In Cloaked Figure IX the fabric is almost entirely still. Chadwick studied the weight and properties of different cloths closely, and here he chose one that hangs heavily, suggesting ceremonial robes. Rather than flowing curves, the folds are cut into crisp, grooved lines that echo the sharp set of the shoulders and the firm stance of his figure’s legs. The cloak reinforces the angularity of the body beneath it, wrapping the figure like a second skin. It also gives the figure a sense of movement. Her body is static, yet the pooled folds at her heels suggest the path she has just crossed, and she seems to glide towards us as if in a ceremonial procession. The sculpture is at once still and in motion, and this tension gives her a sense of purpose, as she moves towards an unknown destination.
Chadwick believed that posture said more than expression. He used the tilt of the neck, the position of the head and the distribution of weight to convey a regal presence. As he explained, ‘The important thing in my figures is always the attitude – what the figures are expressing through their actual stance. They talk, as it were, and this is something a lot of people don’t understand’ (quoted in E. Lucie-Smith, Chadwick, Gloucestershire, 1997, p. 31). By stripping away detail, he heightens the figure’s anonymity and mystery, achieving immense grandeur and presence with remarkable economy of form.
From the mid-1970s Chadwick spoke of his new figures as ‘Presences’, rather than the ‘Watchers’ of earlier years. They were about being rather than doing, and he wanted them to speak through the relationship they set up with people: ‘If you can get their physical attitudes right you can spell out a message’ (quoted in M. Bird, op. cit., p. 147). Unlike many of his figures, Cloaked Figure IX stands alone, without a male counterpart, yet her presence is no less powerful. At this scale her full attitude cannot be grasped from a single viewpoint. The viewer must walk around her to take in the full majesty of the cloak, so that Chadwick, has us do the walking while she holds her ground.