Lynn Chadwick

Irving Gallery, Palm Beach
Acquired from the above

Dennis Farr & Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue, Gloucestershire, 1997, no. C127S, illustration of another cast p. 418
Dennis Farr & Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 1947-2005, Aldershot, 2006, no. C127S, illustration of another cast p. 426

This work is in excellent original condition. The sculpture is in two parts. The patina is even and in good original condition with no apparent damage. There is some surface dirt and dulling to patina itself to the steps in each part.
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Entranced by rhythmic counter-positions, Chadwick began exploring the motif of descending and ascending stairs in 1991. Capturing motion was a fascinating concept for the artist throughout his career and as the years progressed his walking sculptures became more vigorous and the wing-like forms previously stationed at the figures’ sides became flowing sleeves, capes, or full-length cloaks. The cloaks billowed behind the figures as they faced a headstrong wind, enhancing the dynamism of their motion. As Herbert Read noted, “Chadwick is preoccupied with states of attention or alertness in the human figure or the animal. His aim is to incorporate a moment of maximum intensity, and this he does by the most direct means—the reduction of bodily attitudes to their magnetic lines of force” (quoted in Judith Collins, Lynn Chadwick: The Collection at Lypiatt Park, New York, 2006, p. 22).

This brilliantly dynamic sculpture presents dramatic profiles from several viewpoints. The soft outline of the figures’ buttocks is counterbalanced by the triangulation of their heads and the divergent lines and motions created by their respective processions up and down the stairs. Chadwick heightens the inherent tension with the starkly forward facing positions of both figures, neither acknowledging the others’ presence. Chadwick reflected on these sculptures by stating: “Curved figures of women are climbing and descending. Well dressed, well formed, unthinking, they know where they are going. They pass on the stairs, but do not see each other. The stairway is the passage to their destination,” (ibid., p. 188).