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    Sale 5981

    20C British Art

    London

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    12 June 1998

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    • Reg Butler (1913-1981)
    Lot 96

    Reg Butler (1913-1981)

    The Bride

    Price realised

    GBP 26,450

    Estimate

    GBP 15,000 - GBP 20,000

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    Reg Butler (1913-1981)
    The Bride
    stamped with initials 'RB' (on the base)
    bronze with a brown patina
    93 in. (236.2 cm.) high
    Conceived between 1954-1961 and cast in an edition of eight

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    Literature and exhibited

    Literature

    R. Calvocoressi, Reg Butler, Tate Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1983, p.28 (another cast illustrated).


    Lot Essay

    Richard Calvocoressi (loc. cit.) comments of this work ''The Bride', nearly eight feet high, occupied him intermittently from 1954 to 1961, after which date he began to work in the more organic material of wax. The figure has a top-heaviness reminiscent of the Edinburgh 'Girl' [Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh] of 1957-8, but the complete absence of arms and massive build-up of modelling around the head give it the shape of a mushroom cloud. Butler worked on 'The Bride' in the yard outside his studio, underneath the overhanging branches of a large tree. He later wondered whether the sculpture's nervously worked surface had not in some way stemmed from his subliminal awareness of the dappled effect of sunlight on foliage. He fully accepted the role of 'creative accident' in making sculpture, especially if it arose from the unpredicable character of the material'.

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