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Lot Essay
In 1957, Lynn Chadwick received a prestigious public commission from the British Air League to design a memorial for the new long-haul terminal building at London Airport, known today as Heathrow. The monument would commemorate the record-breaking double crossing of the Atlantic by the British titanic airship R34 in July 1919, the first time such a feat had ever been accomplished. The daring flight had taken days of continuous flying each way, with the enormous airship (nicknamed ‘Tiny’ by the crew) landing in Long Island New York after the first-leg of the voyage with just enough fuel for one more hour of airtime and a leak that had reportedly been repaired by the crew’s entire supply of chewing gum. The R34’s voyage was a landmark moment in the history of air travel, and a fitting subject for the new terminal dedicated to such international journeys, which was due to open in 1959, 40 years after the event.
Though fresh from his recent success at the Venice Biennale, where he had been awarded the prize for sculpture over such illustrious names as Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier, Chadwick was nevertheless a daring and unexpected choice for the project. His name had been put forward by the art dealer, Sidney F. Sabin, who was Chairman of the organising committee for the memorial. Intrigued, Chadwick set to work, creating a 45 cm. tall maquette that won the swift approval of the committee, as well as the Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, Harold Watkinson, and the architect of the new airport building, Frederic Gibberd. Photographs taken by David Farrell in 1958 show the artist at work in the former chapel of his home at Lypiatt Park constructing the armature of the full-size model for the R34 project, welding a complex network of iron rods together to create a towering, seven-foot high framework.
While the original sketches and maquettes for the project had proposed a two headed figure, looking Janus-like in opposing directions to represent the airship’s double-flight across the ocean, Chadwick simplified the design as he worked with his welding torch, deciding upon a single rectangular head that was set at a slight angle from the torso. For Chadwick, the process of constructing the armature for his sculptures was never merely a process of scaling-up a preconceived idea, but rather an exploratory method of work in which he considered each element afresh, reaching new forms and structural ideas as he developed his ideas to full-size. In the final sculpture, Chadwick also shifted away from the original idea of having two equally sized wings on either side of the figure, favouring instead a single, enlarged element that stretches outwards from the body, perhaps inspired by the sheer mass and monumentality of the R34 airship. This striking asymmetry accentuates the work’s incongruous sense of balance, which is rooted in the contrast between the heaviness of the upper section of the sculpture and the three slender legs it rests upon, the powerful form seeming to almost defy gravity and appear lighter than it seems.
However, Chadwick’s designs were met by strong opposition from conservative critics and commentators, most notably the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, with the strongest dissent coming from the pioneering airman and former cabinet minister, Lord Brabazon of Tara. Highly critical of modern art, Lord Brabazon vociferously attacked Chadwick’s sculpture which aroused considerable controversy in the press, and the project was ultimately abandoned. Chadwick remained philosophical about the debacle, however, later reflecting that his work would have been lost among the welter of buildings and roadways that surrounded the new terminal. Nevertheless, he continued to work on the sculpture, refining certain elements and finalising the piece, before casting it in bronze in an edition of four in 1959 and granting it the title Stranger III. Somewhat ironically, two examples from the series are now sited permanently in public spaces – one at the Colby College Bixler Art and Music Center in Waterville Maine, and the other among the ancient buildings in the city of Spoleto in Italy.
Though fresh from his recent success at the Venice Biennale, where he had been awarded the prize for sculpture over such illustrious names as Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier, Chadwick was nevertheless a daring and unexpected choice for the project. His name had been put forward by the art dealer, Sidney F. Sabin, who was Chairman of the organising committee for the memorial. Intrigued, Chadwick set to work, creating a 45 cm. tall maquette that won the swift approval of the committee, as well as the Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, Harold Watkinson, and the architect of the new airport building, Frederic Gibberd. Photographs taken by David Farrell in 1958 show the artist at work in the former chapel of his home at Lypiatt Park constructing the armature of the full-size model for the R34 project, welding a complex network of iron rods together to create a towering, seven-foot high framework.
While the original sketches and maquettes for the project had proposed a two headed figure, looking Janus-like in opposing directions to represent the airship’s double-flight across the ocean, Chadwick simplified the design as he worked with his welding torch, deciding upon a single rectangular head that was set at a slight angle from the torso. For Chadwick, the process of constructing the armature for his sculptures was never merely a process of scaling-up a preconceived idea, but rather an exploratory method of work in which he considered each element afresh, reaching new forms and structural ideas as he developed his ideas to full-size. In the final sculpture, Chadwick also shifted away from the original idea of having two equally sized wings on either side of the figure, favouring instead a single, enlarged element that stretches outwards from the body, perhaps inspired by the sheer mass and monumentality of the R34 airship. This striking asymmetry accentuates the work’s incongruous sense of balance, which is rooted in the contrast between the heaviness of the upper section of the sculpture and the three slender legs it rests upon, the powerful form seeming to almost defy gravity and appear lighter than it seems.
However, Chadwick’s designs were met by strong opposition from conservative critics and commentators, most notably the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, with the strongest dissent coming from the pioneering airman and former cabinet minister, Lord Brabazon of Tara. Highly critical of modern art, Lord Brabazon vociferously attacked Chadwick’s sculpture which aroused considerable controversy in the press, and the project was ultimately abandoned. Chadwick remained philosophical about the debacle, however, later reflecting that his work would have been lost among the welter of buildings and roadways that surrounded the new terminal. Nevertheless, he continued to work on the sculpture, refining certain elements and finalising the piece, before casting it in bronze in an edition of four in 1959 and granting it the title Stranger III. Somewhat ironically, two examples from the series are now sited permanently in public spaces – one at the Colby College Bixler Art and Music Center in Waterville Maine, and the other among the ancient buildings in the city of Spoleto in Italy.