Kenneth Armitage, R.A.

Gimpel Fils, London, where acquired by E.C. Gregory, December 1952
Acquired from the above by a Private Collection, U.K.
Their sale, Sotheby's London, 24th October 2005, lot 109, where acquired by the present owner

London, Gimpel Fils, Kenneth Armitage, December 1952, cat. no.41 (another cast).

Tamsyn Woollcombe (ed.), Kenneth Armitage: Life and Work, Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1997, cat. no.KA10 (another cast).

Structurally sound, there is very minor surface dirt and dust to the crevices, with casting residue apparent and a minor casting flaw to one of the legs, only visible upon very close inspection. This excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 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.
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We are grateful to Tamsyn Woollcombe for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

Kenneth Armitage's People in a Wind (1950) is, along with his Family Going for a Walk (1951), one of his two best-known and most popular early sculptures. Armitage executed this work whilst teaching sculpture at Bath Academy of Art (the far-sighted academy run by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis at Corsham Court who recruited several talented young artists onto the staff). It was here that he found his mature and distinctive style and began to produce a highly innovative series of sculptures. Armitage had become interested in the way in which groups of figures massed together such that a spectator registered the single mass before the individuals: 'Joining figures together, I found in time 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 detail I felt necessary' (The Artist, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Kenneth Armitage, Methuen, London 1962 (unpaginated)). 

People in a Wind (1950), follows Armitage’s first sculpture on this theme Linked Figures (1949) and was particularly inspired by an observation in London, `looking out of the window on a very windy day, I saw a woman walking, holding two children, all three leaning into the wind … their clothes flapping out in the wind rather like washing on a line’ (Tamsyn Woollcombe (ed.), Kenneth Armitage; Life and Work, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1997, p. 26). In People in a Wind, Armitage merges the figures into a clear single unit, the thick central slab would be a feature of Armitage’s group sculpture for the next five years. The figures push forward together against the elements, clothes and limbs melding into one mass, and whilst there is deliberately nothing to give any sense of individual identity, Armitage gives the piece huge movement and humour.  

This work exists in a number of variations and sizes and thus attests to the ways in which Armitage was exploring the theme of interlinked figure groups. In its largest form, People in a Wind was included in the landmark exhibition at the 1952 Venice Biennale, alongside works by Robert Adams, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick and Geoffrey Clarke, Bernard Meadows, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. This work was purchased at the exhibition by Peggy Guggenheim for £195 and another cast was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Indeed, at the selection committee meeting for the exhibition, Philip Hendy (Director of the National Gallery) bought one of the maquettes. This exhibition marked the beginning of Armitage’s international career, providing an immediately prominent platform for his work, and placing him alongside a new generation of British sculptors who were to reach international acclaim during the 1950s.