Bernard Meadows

Taranman, London
Acquired from the above by the previous owner, February 1983
Their sale, Sotheby's New York, 13th September 2005, lot 130, where acquired by the present owner

Venice, XXXII Venice Biennale, British Pavilion, 20th June - 18th October 1964, with British Council tour to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Moderna Galerija, Zagreb, Kunstamt Reinickendorf, Berlin, Museen der Stadt, Recklinghausen and  the Kunstverein, Braunschweig.

Alan Bowness, Bernard Meadows Sculpture and Drawing, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1995, cat. no.86, p.69 illustrated pl.50.

Structurally sound. There is minor surface dirt, dust and matter to the crevices, and elsewhere to the body. The work would benefit from a clean and a re-wax. There is slight ware to the patina in a few places, including a small, isolated area to the left arm. Elsewhere there are minor surface marks and scratches that appear in keeping with the nature of the artist's technique. There are one or two very slight, minor spots of oxidisation. There is a rectangular area to the front right of the base on which the figure stands, a residue from a previous metal plaque. This excepting the work appears to be in very good condition. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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‘The figures are armoured, aggressive, protected, but inside the safety of the shell they are completely soft and vulnerable.’ (Bernard Meadows quoted in Alan Bowness, op. cit., p.15)

Physical, heavily textured and brutish, Large Standing Armed Figure is a forceful work of art which has an undeniable presence. One of Meadows’ most arresting images, it is a creation of its time, belonging to the generation of post-War British sculptors who came to prominence at the 1952 Venice Biennale, which included Adams, Armitage, Butler, Chadwick, Clarke, Paolozzi and Turnbull. Herbert Read famously coined the term ‘geometry of fear’ to describe their work, but it was to the sculptures of Meadows that the phrase was to have the most resonance.  

Meadows was obsessed with the representation of fear, from sculpting images of frightened birds to creating frightening armed figures, and this mood is never far away, even in the later more sensuous works. As Penelope Curtis commented, his sculptures ‘reflect his perception of our situation in the world as being between threat and defence. He has been impressed by these two conditions, and watches for the physical manifestation of the predator, the vulnerable, the protective’ (Alan Bowness, op. cit., p.19). Unafraid to confront the crueller side of existence in a manner which draws parallels to the paintings of Francis Bacon, perhaps most famously in his vision of screaming Popes which emerged from the desolate shadows of the Second World War, Meadows' work can be challenging as a result. Not one to court popularity, this dedicated commitment gives his work a strong identity and integrity.

Meadows initially used animals as vehicles for his emotions, the need for which was also found in the work of his contemporaries such as Lynn Chadwick. One of Meadows’ most powerful motifs was the crab, the inspiration for which came from being stationed at the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean towards the end of the War, which teemed with different kinds of crabs. However, Meadows began to find the theme of birds and crabs unsatisfactory and in 1960 he returned to the human figure. This coincided with a visit to Florence where he was drawn to Michelangelo’s bust of Brutus in the Bargello, which Michelangelo himself called ‘a beast in human form’, and to other Renaissance figures such as the seated armed figure of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere of the warring Ghibelline faction. Domineering and threatening, Meadows likened them to tycoons ‘who are protected by the paraphernalia of their offices and retinues, but who are soft inside. Bullies are frightened people’ (Alan Bowness, op. cit., p.15). In this way, Meadows highlights the relationship between exterior and interior, hard and soft, drawing on elements from his crab pieces. This is suggested in the present sculpture with the two small, arm-like elements protruding from either side of the heavy exterior, hinting at a softer, more vulnerable life form within. Stumpy and somewhat feeble, one is led to question whether this seemingly powerful figure on the outside is in fact threatening at all. This is a central premise for Meadows, who always sympathised with the victim in his work, bearing witness to the threats they face from those who seek to dominate. Other sources of inspiration from which he drew included the ethnographic collections of the British Museum, baleful images from primitive art and the Holbein portrait of Henry VIII.

The present work is the largest armed figure from the series, which he produced between 1961 and 1965. A formidable sculpture, it embodies most powerfully the political and formal themes that occupied Meadows’ oeuvre and distinguished his career.