Head 1

Details

William Turnbull (1922-2012)
Head 1
bronze with a brown patina
7¼ in. (18.4 cm.) long
Conceived in 1955 and cast in an edition of 4.

Provenance

Gifted by the artist to John Plumb.

Literature

B. Cohen, 'William Turnbull: painter and sculptor', Modern Painters, Winter 1995, pp. 30-35.
A. Davidson, The Sculpture of William Turnbull, Aldershot, 2005, p. 93, no. 52, another cast illustrated.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Lot Essay

'The Heads of 1955-57, in which human features almost, then totally, merge with the surface texture as a whole, accentuate anonymity of shape. Although they are elementary volumes for which descriptive terms such as 'drum' and 'egg' are natural, these Heads achieve impersonal detachment through a means opposite to the perfection sought by Brancusi. They emphasize experience. Worn, battered, lacerated and irregular, they are perceived as forms sufficiently fundamental still to proclaim their essential identity after everything has happened to them ... Each free-standing Head can be rolled into any position desired: they have no top or bottom' (see R. Morphet, exhibition catalogue, William Turnbull: sculpture and painting, London, Tate Gallery, 1973, p. 31).

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