LYNN CHADWICK, R.A. (1914-2003)

Lynn Chadwick’s Winged Figures is part of a significant collection of sculptures which were commissioned in 1971 by the Morris Singer Sculpture Association Ltd. The key British Sculptors at the time – including Elisabeth Frink, Kenneth Armitage and Barbara Hepworth (see lot 107) – were asked to create small-scale works, measuring less than twelve inches in width, cast in 18 carat gold, each in an edition of 12. G. Whittet, reviewing their exhibition at The Goldsmith’s Hall argued that the commission stands testament to the identities of each artist: ‘Together they are miniature examples of the spirit of contemporary sculpture in free-standing form… all of them establishing iconic identities within their own intrinsic scales’ (G. Whittet, Art and Artists, London, March 1975, p. 41).

Winged Figures depicts two figures cast in gold, on a black stone base. The figures are diminutive, of almost childlike proportion, and stand close together. In fact, the work gives the impression of being a single form split down the middle: with their flat planed bodies, pitted interior textures, and matching cuboid heads (a distinctive departure from Chadwick’s introduction of the triangular female head), the piece recalls earlier works like his doubled designs for the R34 Memorial, Stranger II, Conjunction IX, and Maquette for Winged Figure II. Chadwick carefully maintains the figurative intimacy of his coupled motif through a delicacy of expression in the tilted chins and sloped, winged shoulders. As Herbert Read notes, ‘His aim is to incorporate a moment of maximum intensity, and he does this by the most direct means – the reduction of bodily attitudes to their magnetic lines of force’ (H. Read, exhibition catalogue, ‘Lynn Chadwick’, vi Bienal de São Paulo, 1961, in M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Surrey, 2014, p. 115).

Seen elsewhere in series like the Elektras, where burnished breastplates strike a dynamic contrast with darkened bronze bodies, and the pitted striations of Encounter II, the use of gold lends a lustre to the work beautifully reflected in its black polished base – as well as a certain inscrutability. As demonstrated by its duality of application within the works mentioned above, the twin facets of a material like gold – its fantastic softness and shine – places it somewhere between the malleable organicism of bronze, and the sharp, reflective angularity of Chadwick’s later experiments in stainless steel.