Trog

Chadwick redefined the way human forms can be represented in sculpture, ‘seeking not to replicate pre-existing organisms but to construct new creatures and beings, relying solely on his instinct and manual proficiency’, (N. Rogers, exhibition catalogue, Lynn Chadwick: Evolution in Sculpture, Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and Blackwell, 2013, p. 6). He first began exploring the representation of human form in the 1950s, and it was a theme that continued to occupy him throughout his artistic career. Central to this practice was his investigation of how a figure moves and inhabits the space around them. As is evident in Trog, Chadwick was not seeking a naturalistic representation of a person, but rather believed in the intuitive nature of artistic reaction, striving to instil his forms with ‘attitude’ and the essence of humanity.

Chadwick frequently did not use drawings to conceive his works, instead he worked out his sculptures in three dimensions, feeling out his own way at a vast medieval manor house at Lypiatt Park, which gave him the space to work in a large studio and where he later created his own foundry. The freedom to work in this way brought about a new emphasis on geometric elements in his work and, as Rungwe Kingdon has observed, 'Lynn’s sculptural language was essentially built around triangles. The stability of a tripod, pyramid or cone, both as an actual form or as a concept to construct other forms, was intrinsic to his method. Juxtaposed triangles extended into squares, rectangles or even larger polyhedrons, could be extended further into three-dimensional, cage-like constructions creating more organic objects' (R. Kingdon (intro.), exhibition catalogue, Lynn Chadwick: Out of the Shadows: Unseen Sculpture of the 1960s, London, Pangolin, 2009, p. 3).

We are very grateful to Sarah Chadwick for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.