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Lot Essay
Filled with a dramatic sense of movement, Jubilee IV is a monumental illustration of Lynn Chadwick’s mature visual style, depicting two figures as they stride forwards, their voluminous cloaks flowing behind them in a great undulating wave. Cast in 1985 in an edition of six, the work stands at over eight feet tall and is among the largest sculptures the artist ever created, with other examples held in the collections of The Jerusalem Foundation in Jerusalem, and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Sofia Imber, in Caracas, Venezuela.
Taking its title from the celebrations surrounding a twenty-fifth anniversary, such as those held in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the British throne, or the artist’s own celebrations marking his win of the Grand Prix for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1956, Jubilee IV comes from a concentrated group of sculptures in which Chadwick explored different variations on the theme of cloaked figures walking, both as maquettes and monumental bronzes. A common subject within Chadwick’s art since the 1950s, the pairing of two figures in close proximity to one another offered a subject rich with creative potential, allowing him to explore the tensions and relationships that arose between their forms when juxtaposed in various scenarios and situations.
Here, Chadwick clearly presents the characters as two opposing genders, their forms and accoutrements suggesting a male-female coupling. The woman is more lightly built, her shoulders sloping at a gentler angle and her body appearing softer and rounder than that of her male partner, as her dress clings to her curves. He, in turn, occupies a weightier stance, his mass and angularity more forcefully expressed, with the addition of a deep fissure running the length of his torso in a manner that echoes the fall of a suit jacket. Similarly, their geometrically shaped heads emphasize their inherent differences—a block-like cube sits atop the male figure’s neck, while a sharp edged pyramidal shape is used for the female, a pair of symbols that Chadwick frequently employed to distinguish the different genders.
Streaming out behind them in a double layer of twisting, waving fabric, the figures’ cloaks lend a distinct sense of dynamism to the Jubilee sculptures. It was the rhythms and patterns of these robes that intrigued Chadwick most, the ways in which the lines and folds of the fabric could be manipulated to create interesting visual effects and enhance the presence of his figures. “Later I made this flowing coat evolve into ripples and later into a blown effect… like academic gowns blowing out behind,” he explained. “I made the outline of the cloak into a curved or multi-carved surface, or line rather, and joined them up so that I got interior volumes, sort of hollows which had a shaped outline” (quoted in M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Farnham, 2014, p. 150). Here, the cloaks fall down and outwards from the figures’ shoulders, billowing behind them in a manner that accentuates both the volume of the figures and the sense of forward motion within the piece, echoing a diverse array of art historical precedents, from the clinging, rippling drapery of classical sculptures such as Nike of Samothrace to the dynamic flowing forms of Umberto Boccioni’s 1913 sculpture Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio.
There is an almost ceremonial quality to Jubilee IV, as if the two figures are participating in a procession or parade, their forms filled with intent as they step forwards. Across his oeuvre, Chadwick enjoyed playing with nuances of pose and stance, imbuing his abstracted figures with a distinctly human quality and sense of character by subtly adjusting certain angles or positions, instilling them with a certain “attitude” in the process. Through the set of their shoulders, the positioning of the head or the weight within the body, Chadwick believed he could make his sculptures speak, as it were: “If you can get their physical attitudes right,” he explained, “you can spell out a message” (quoted in ibid., p. 147). In Jubilee IV the two figures’ appear to proceed with confidence and determination, their geometric “heads” held high as they look straight ahead, moving forwards with purpose towards an unknown destination.
Taking its title from the celebrations surrounding a twenty-fifth anniversary, such as those held in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the British throne, or the artist’s own celebrations marking his win of the Grand Prix for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1956, Jubilee IV comes from a concentrated group of sculptures in which Chadwick explored different variations on the theme of cloaked figures walking, both as maquettes and monumental bronzes. A common subject within Chadwick’s art since the 1950s, the pairing of two figures in close proximity to one another offered a subject rich with creative potential, allowing him to explore the tensions and relationships that arose between their forms when juxtaposed in various scenarios and situations.
Here, Chadwick clearly presents the characters as two opposing genders, their forms and accoutrements suggesting a male-female coupling. The woman is more lightly built, her shoulders sloping at a gentler angle and her body appearing softer and rounder than that of her male partner, as her dress clings to her curves. He, in turn, occupies a weightier stance, his mass and angularity more forcefully expressed, with the addition of a deep fissure running the length of his torso in a manner that echoes the fall of a suit jacket. Similarly, their geometrically shaped heads emphasize their inherent differences—a block-like cube sits atop the male figure’s neck, while a sharp edged pyramidal shape is used for the female, a pair of symbols that Chadwick frequently employed to distinguish the different genders.
Streaming out behind them in a double layer of twisting, waving fabric, the figures’ cloaks lend a distinct sense of dynamism to the Jubilee sculptures. It was the rhythms and patterns of these robes that intrigued Chadwick most, the ways in which the lines and folds of the fabric could be manipulated to create interesting visual effects and enhance the presence of his figures. “Later I made this flowing coat evolve into ripples and later into a blown effect… like academic gowns blowing out behind,” he explained. “I made the outline of the cloak into a curved or multi-carved surface, or line rather, and joined them up so that I got interior volumes, sort of hollows which had a shaped outline” (quoted in M. Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Farnham, 2014, p. 150). Here, the cloaks fall down and outwards from the figures’ shoulders, billowing behind them in a manner that accentuates both the volume of the figures and the sense of forward motion within the piece, echoing a diverse array of art historical precedents, from the clinging, rippling drapery of classical sculptures such as Nike of Samothrace to the dynamic flowing forms of Umberto Boccioni’s 1913 sculpture Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio.
There is an almost ceremonial quality to Jubilee IV, as if the two figures are participating in a procession or parade, their forms filled with intent as they step forwards. Across his oeuvre, Chadwick enjoyed playing with nuances of pose and stance, imbuing his abstracted figures with a distinctly human quality and sense of character by subtly adjusting certain angles or positions, instilling them with a certain “attitude” in the process. Through the set of their shoulders, the positioning of the head or the weight within the body, Chadwick believed he could make his sculptures speak, as it were: “If you can get their physical attitudes right,” he explained, “you can spell out a message” (quoted in ibid., p. 147). In Jubilee IV the two figures’ appear to proceed with confidence and determination, their geometric “heads” held high as they look straight ahead, moving forwards with purpose towards an unknown destination.