Hollow Oak 3

Armitage states, 'In 1975, a phase began which was very important for me. Ever since I have lived in London, I have been to Richmond Park ... I had noticed of course that there were trees all over the park, but they did not really mean anything to me until one day in 1975, in the spring, I suddenly saw them ... from then on I was absolutely hooked, and I went usually about three times a week ... I got books out on the oak trees, their extraordinary growth rate, their right-angular growth. The little branches shoot out at right-angles, so the shape is always zig-zagging and not curvaceous ... The love affair with Richmond Park lasted for a decade, from 1975 to 1985 ...' (see T. Woollcombe (ed.), Kenneth Armitage: Life and Work, London, 1997, p. 121).
The present work is one of about twenty different bronze tree maquettes that Armitage created.