Kenneth Armitage

New York, MOMA, New Images of Man, 1959, no.7 (another cast);
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Kenneth Armitage & William Scott, 3^rd – 30^th June 1959, no.14 (another cast);
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Kenneth Armitage, July – August 1959, no.25 (another cast).

 

Roland Penrose, Kenneth Armitage: Artists of our time vol.vii, Bodensee- Verlag, Amriswil, Switzerland 1960, pl.14 (another cast);
Tamsyn Woollcombe (ed.) in association with the artist, Kenneth Armitage: Life and Work, Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1997, KA59, illustrated p.45 (another cast).

Dirt has gathered in some of the crevices but the sculpture is in good overall condition. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Conceived in 1959.

The grouping of a number of figures together into a single sculpture had been a theme that Armitage had explored throughout the 1950s, from the early breakthrough works such as Family Going for a Walk and People in the Wind, and allowed him to explore the idea of figures being simultaneously individual yet part of a bigger entity, that entity frequently being the image first registered by a viewer.

These groupings became increasingly abstracted as the decade progressed, and the artist's confidence in his manipulation of the basic forms grew, allowing him to explore the emotional responses that could be elicited from the viewer. A work such as The Seasons exhibits an exuberance in both forms and surface that immediately transmits its message to the whole image. Less literal than the earlier sculpture groups, The Seasons offers us a moment of excitement, the three figures caught in a moment of elation, arms aloft and outstretched, their long legs suggesting a leap of exhilaration, perhaps reminiscent of the response of a sporting crowd. The artist also, and possibly for the first time, included painted colour in the sculpture, perhaps harking back to his early training as a painter. The present cast includes ochre, black and blue, which suggests that the colours used may have varied between casts, the initial cast, possibly the one that subsequently belonged to Armitage's important American collector David Bright, being painted in black and white.

'Joining figures together I found in time that I wanted to merge them so completely they formed a new organic unit – a simple mass of whatever shape I liked containing only that number of heads, limbs or other details I felt necessary'(The artist, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Kenneth Armitage, Methuen, London 1962, unpaginated).