Reg Butler

Lent by Florene May Schoenborn to the Art Insitute of Chicago in 1957 and gifted in 1971

New York, Curt Valentin Gallery, Reg Butler, January - February 1955, cat. no.42 (another cast);
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, 27th October - 7th January 1961, cat. no.464 (another cast);
Kentucky, J. B. Speed Art Museum, Reg Butler: A Retrospective Exhibition, 22nd October - 1st December 1963, cat. no.56 (another cast);
Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Contemporary British Painting and Sculpture, October - November 1964, cat. no.10, illustrated (another cast);
London, Tate Gallery, Reg Butler, 16th November 1983 - 15th January 1984, cat. no.51, illustrated p.65 (another cast).

 

Margaret Garlake, The Sculpture of Reg Butler, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2006, cat. no.149, illustrated fig.5, p.14 and fig.39, p.47 (another cast).

The following condition report has been prepared by Plowden & Smith Limited, 190 St Ann's Hill, London SW18 2RT: The sculpture is manufactured from bronze and has a mid brown patina. The figure stands on a painted wooden base. The surface of the sculpture is generally in good condition, there are two very fine scratches between the buttocks. There appear to be two repairs to the bow area which are discoloured and grey in colour. There is a small crack to part of the instrument. This is deemed to be stable if handled correctly. There is some flaking in the finish to two of the branches and another small loss on the underside of the branch under the right foot of the figure as you view it. The wooden base is splintered in areas and some of the paint is lost. Please contact the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about 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."

Male figures are rare in Butler's oeuvre, and when they do appear, they are generally found to be holding or operating some kind of machinery. Manipulator is one of Butler's earliest large-scale bronze sculptures and holds a network of rods whilst his head is thrown back. The figure is lifted off the ground on a grid similar to that which was to become a feature of his female figures during the decade.

Commentators have noted the comparisons between Butler's sculpture and the work of Francis Bacon, and indeed their work had been shown together at the I.C.A., along with that of Germaine Richier, in the London/Paris exhibition of 1950. Both artists also exhibited regularly with the Hanover Gallery in London throughout the decade, and thus there are grounds for such connections. The anguished face of Butler's Manipulator, whilst not as distorted as that of  The Oracle of 1952 and Circe Head of 1952-3, still carries a clear message of torment, and seems to derive originally from the screaming figure in the right hand panel of Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (Tate Gallery). The framework on which Manipulator stands may be compared with the constructions which appear in Bacon's paintings, such as that found in Study of a Nude (Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Collection, U.E.A.) of 1952-3. However, the intentions here are very different from that in Bacon's work of the period which was demonstrating an ever-increasing tendency towards violence. Manipulator seems to be a questioning figure, and indeed the head is very similar to the upturned head of the same date entitled Study for Third Watcher and thus we may see a strand of the ideas of the earlier Unknown Political Prisoner Sculptures carried through to the sculptures that followed.