Bernard Meadows (1915-2005)

In 1961 Meadows conceived his first Armed Bust sculpture and continued to explore this theme through the 1960s. These sculptures are associated with a shift from animal to human forms. Meadows comments 'The figures are armed, agressive, protected, but inside the safety of the shell they are completely soft and vulnerable' (see A Bowness, Bernard Meadows Sculpture and Drawings, Much Hadham, 1995, p. 15).

Bowness comments,'In many of the Armed Busts, it is the eyes which make direct contact with the viewer. Meadows has always been interested in anatomy, and singles out the ocular form in both sculptures and drawings of this period' (ibid. p. 16).