John Milne (1931-1978)

Milne was galvanized into productive overdrive as a result of his large Plymouth retrospective in 1971. The same year the Tate Gallery acquired its first Milne. He also reacted to the perceived isolation of St. Ives by travelling to the Mediterranean and Middle East, regions that inspired exotic or ancient architectural forms to inform his increasingly abstracted, even minimal sculpture. Like Persian Monolith, the vertical Bronze Tower is overtly architectural but without embellishment or detail. A central pierced interior is like a reversed, inscribed column contrasting with the flanking polished uprights on either side.
P.D.