Three Sketches for Construction

Details

John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)
Three Sketches for Construction
signed 'John Piper' (lower left)
pencil, ink and gouache
each 4¼ x 5½ in. (10.8 x 14 cm.)
Executed in 1934.

Provenance

with Marlborough Fine Art, London.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, John Piper, Tate Gallery, London, 1983, p. 83, no. 13, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Tate Gallery, John Piper, November 1983 - January 1984, no. 13.

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

In the summer of 1934, Piper began work on a series of roughly 10 abstract relief constructions, of which only three remain today. Piper described these works as 'The nearest I ever got to sculpture' (G. Power, R. Swift and E. Cunningham, John Piper, London, 1979, p. 35). In the present lot, the top two studies are compositionally similar to Construction, Intersection, 1934 (Tate Gallery), while the lower sheet appears to be a more rhythmic version of Construction, 1934, which was dismantled and reconstructed by Piper in 1967 (Tate Gallery).

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