Trio

Details

John Milne (1931-1978)
Trio
signed with initials, inscribed, dated and numbered 'TRIO I 1/9 JEM 1969' (on the underside of the base)
polished bronze
13¼ in. (33.6 cm.) high, excluding the base
Conceived in 1969 as an edition of 9.

Literature

J.P. Hodin, John Milne: Sculptor. Life and Works, London, 1977, unpaginated, no. 20, another cast illustrated.
I. Fordyke-Crofts, John Milne, Reflections of a Sculptor, St. Ives, 1998, p. 11 and 16, another cast illustrated.
P. Davies, The Sculpture of John Milne, London, 2000, p. 77, another cast illustrated.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Lot Essay

The late 1960s and early 1970s represent a productive high point in Milne's career. Trio is a slim, pierced upright composition from this time showing the abiding influence of the early carvings based on torsos or heads, whilst hinting at Brancusi's three-in-one totemic arrangements. Notch-like forms punctuate a columnar form base, midriff and apex. The sculpture has a flowing planarity which ascends in a rectilinear, rather than overtly curved or spiralling manner. Derived from a plaster prototype, Trio reveals carved, modelled and even constructed processes, the final preparatory plaster no doubt reflecting the hand of all three. The middle of three intrusions completely pierces the form in a Hepworthian mode, adding the complexity of an internal dimension.
P.D.

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