John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)
Lot 331

John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)

Three Sketches for Construction

Closed10 October 2012

Price Realised

GBP 11,250

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John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)
Three Sketches for Construction
signed 'John Piper' (lower left)
pencil, ink and gouache
each 4¼ x 5½ in. (10.8 x 14 cm.)
Executed in 1934.

with Marlborough Fine Art, London.

Specialist note

In the summer of 1934, Piper began work on a series of roughly 10 abstract relief constructions, of which only three remain today. Piper described these works as 'The nearest I ever got to sculpture' (G. Power, R. Swift and E. Cunningham, John Piper, London, 1979, p. 35). In the present lot, the top two studies are compositionally similar to Construction, Intersection, 1934 (Tate Gallery), while the lower sheet appears to be a more rhythmic version of Construction, 1934, which was dismantled and reconstructed by Piper in 1967 (Tate Gallery).