Robert Adams 1917-1984
Divided Column, 1952
birch
height, 57 cm (22 1/2 in)
titled and inscribed with medium on base
Sculpted in the year of the 'Geometry of Fear' exhibition at the Venice Biennale's British Pavilion. The Tate's 1950s sketchbook shows ideas that resemble the form, Adams' creativity in full...
Sculpted in the year of the 'Geometry of Fear' exhibition at the Venice Biennale's British Pavilion. The Tate's 1950s sketchbook shows ideas that resemble the form, Adams' creativity in full flow after a year of travelling to Paris, Dublin and St Ives. Adams was likely living with his new wife at Primrose House, Roehampton when he sculpted this.
This was one of three Divided Columns in Adams' solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in spring 1953, the other two sculptures carved from holly (Grieve 143; exhibited XXXI Venice Biennale, 1962) and an African wood (G 144; exhibited 'Nine Abstract Artists', Redfern, 1955). All refer back to the two 1951 sculptures in oak and lignum-vitae, both Divided Column, 2 Parts (G 125 and 126). In each, a tall cylinder is vertically split and pierced by a hole, perhaps a residual eye or mouth, the upper part being on a round base with a thin collar at the core. The sculptures can be read as a head and neck, though from 1949 Adams had reduced the representational links in his work.
Alongside London gallery exhibitions, Adams also participated in a number of privately organised shows at the studio of artist Adrian Heath. In 1953, Heath held three exhibitions of Constructivist abstract art, in which Adams was the only sculptor showing alongside the core group of painters, Victor Pasmore, Kenneth and Mary Martin, and Heath. Other artists who exhibited included William Scott, Terry Frost, Eduardo Paolozzi, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth.
This was one of three Divided Columns in Adams' solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in spring 1953, the other two sculptures carved from holly (Grieve 143; exhibited XXXI Venice Biennale, 1962) and an African wood (G 144; exhibited 'Nine Abstract Artists', Redfern, 1955). All refer back to the two 1951 sculptures in oak and lignum-vitae, both Divided Column, 2 Parts (G 125 and 126). In each, a tall cylinder is vertically split and pierced by a hole, perhaps a residual eye or mouth, the upper part being on a round base with a thin collar at the core. The sculptures can be read as a head and neck, though from 1949 Adams had reduced the representational links in his work.
Alongside London gallery exhibitions, Adams also participated in a number of privately organised shows at the studio of artist Adrian Heath. In 1953, Heath held three exhibitions of Constructivist abstract art, in which Adams was the only sculptor showing alongside the core group of painters, Victor Pasmore, Kenneth and Mary Martin, and Heath. Other artists who exhibited included William Scott, Terry Frost, Eduardo Paolozzi, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth.
Provenance
acquired from the Estate of the Artist via Gimpel Fils, London, in 2010;
Offer Waterman, London, from where acquired
Exhibitions
Oxford, Black Hall, St Giles, 'Seven British Contemporary Artists', 15 - 27 May 1952, cat. no.30, one of five sculptures exhibited;
London, Gimpel Fils, 'Robert Adams', March - April 1953, cat no.1, one of three works with the same title.
Literature
Alastair Grieve, 'The Sculpture of Robert Adams', London: Lund Humphries, 1992; cat. no.142, illus. p.166, showing condition1
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