Lynn Chadwick

Lynn Russell Chadwick, (24 November 1914 – 25 April 2003) was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Early life and education

Chadwick was born in the suburb of Barnes, in western London, and attended Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood. While there he expressed an interest in being an artist, though his art master suggested architecture was a more realistic option. Accordingly, Chadwick became a trainee draughtsman, working first at the offices of architects Donald Hamilton and then Eugen Carl Kauffman, and finally for Rodney Thomas. Chadwick took great inspiration from Thomas, whose interest in contemporary European architecture and design had a significant effect on his development. His training in architectural drawing was the only formal education he received as an artist. He recalled: "What it taught me was how to compose things, a formal exercise in composition, really, it has nothing to do with the building it represents".

War service

In April 1941, having previously been a conscientious objector, Chadwick volunteered to serve in the Fleet Air Arm,

Recalling this period, Chadwick said: I actually wanted to produce a sort of touchable object, a tangible object. I really wanted to do that rather than be involved with intangible things like architecture which was slightly intangible to me because it had meant, in my case, drawing after drawing after drawing for projects which were never realised. In my case, I wanted to do it to have some reality in front of me.

Art career

In August 1949 one of Chadwick's small mobiles was placed in the window of Gimpel Fils, which promoted modern British art. The following year, he held his first one-man show there, which led to critical attention and several major commissions: two for the 1951 Festival of Britain complex, Tower and Cypress, and one, Green Finger, for the Battersea Park Open Air Sculpture Exhibition that year

In 1973 Chadwick had begun to clothe his figures in pleated drapery – figures often were winged, with billowing cloaks, such as in Pair of Walking Figures – Jubilee 1977. This continued in the 1980s, where works such as High Wind exaggerated the effects of wind. Clothed sitting couples also began to appear on benches, as Chadwick began to explore how far he could push his method towards naturalism.

In 1985, he was created Officier [of the] Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for which he would later become Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1993. In 1988, he was appointed the Order of Andrés Bello – First Class, Venezuela

Chadwick returned to working with steel for the first time since 1962 in 1989. Using this method, Chadwick produced a series of "beasts", which varied in size and were often monumental. These works in welded stainless-steel sheets would come to be the final stage of Chadwick's development of his unique technique. The series began with Rising Beast (1989), with titles that allude to specific primal states of action: Beast Alerted I (1990); Howling Beast I (1990); and Crouching Beast I (1990). Chadwick is said to have delighted in the properties that steel afforded; no matter how dull the weather some facet of the sculptures would catch and reflect the light.

Chadwick was invited back to the Venice Biennale that same year, for which he created two monumental figures, playfully entitled Back To Venice, 1988.

Chadwick was appointed a Senior Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 2001.

Personal life

In 1942 Chadwick married Ann Secord with whom he had one son, Simon. In 1959 he married Frances Jamieson (d. 1964) and had two daughters with her, Sarah and Sophie. In June 1965 he married Éva Reiner and together they had one son, Daniel. Éva, who had come to Britain as a refugee from Budapest, would remain his constant companion, as well as a chronicler and cataloguer of his work. 1956 International prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale 1964 Commander of the Order of the British Empire 1985 French Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2001 Royal Academician, UK

Public collections

Chadwick's work features in the collections of major institutions and galleries around the world, including:

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, US Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, US Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, US Arts Council of Great Britain, London, UK British Council, London, UK Contemporary Art Society, London, UK Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, US Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, US Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Musée Rodin, Paris, France Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands Museum of Modern Art, New York, US Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg, Denmark Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Collegeville, PA Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Tate Gallery, London, UK Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands

Gallery