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Lot Essay
In 1958 John Berger wrote: 'I want to say something about the 'expressionist' sculptures of George Fullard (Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock Street, Mayfair)... Fullard is the best young (under 40) sculptor whom I know in this country. I shall not justify that opinion today. In twenty years time it will be easier. Now it is more necessary to look at the works than to defend comparisons.
I would only respectfully ask the Tate to consider acquiring the small bronze head of a girl which is in this show (refering to the present work in the 1958 exhibition).
In the Tate (?) head, the sidelong glance of the eyes and the quiveringly attentive mouth are not variable factors but intrinsic ones, the overall form of the whole face (and incidentally, the problem of how to end a portrait neck is here magnificently solved) holds its own expresssion just as the form of a full sail holds the wind.
In other words, for Fullard every work grows from a single seed. There is, I suspect very little constructive or cerebral calculation in his work. Instead there are two intuitive compulsions which, opposing each other, generate a tension similar to that of cerebral thought - there is his intuitive recollection and desire for the image he has seen already in life, and there is his intuitive respect for the narrow limits and thus for the dignity of his sculptural language (J. Berger, New Statesman, 6 September 1958, pp. 276-277).
I would only respectfully ask the Tate to consider acquiring the small bronze head of a girl which is in this show (refering to the present work in the 1958 exhibition).
In the Tate (?) head, the sidelong glance of the eyes and the quiveringly attentive mouth are not variable factors but intrinsic ones, the overall form of the whole face (and incidentally, the problem of how to end a portrait neck is here magnificently solved) holds its own expresssion just as the form of a full sail holds the wind.
In other words, for Fullard every work grows from a single seed. There is, I suspect very little constructive or cerebral calculation in his work. Instead there are two intuitive compulsions which, opposing each other, generate a tension similar to that of cerebral thought - there is his intuitive recollection and desire for the image he has seen already in life, and there is his intuitive respect for the narrow limits and thus for the dignity of his sculptural language (J. Berger, New Statesman, 6 September 1958, pp. 276-277).