Curlicue

Tim Scott b. 1937

T01362 Curlicue 1963

Not inscribed.
Fibreglass painted with acrylic and glass, 38 x 28¼ x 28¼ (96.5 x 71.5 x 71.5).
Presented by Alistair McAlpine 1971.
Exh: Waddington Galleries, February 1966 (I); Whitechapel Art Gallery, June–July 1967 (7, repr.); The Alistair McAlpine Gift, Tate Gallery, June-August 1971 (26, repr.)
Lit: Anne Seymour, in catalogue of The Alistair McAlpine Gift, 1971, pp. 72–85.

T01362 is from an edition of three.

The artist made three sculptures titled ‘Curlicue’ in 1963. ‘Curlicue I’ of which T01362 is a version, comprises a curved foam rubber sheet within a square-based structure. In ‘Curlicue II’ and ‘Curlicue III’ the foam sheet is held in a triangular glass structure. The glass sheets of ‘Curlicue II’ and ‘Curlicue III’ fell apart, but the artist still hopes to find some way of securing them together. In all the sculptures the transparent regular form of the glass gives definition to and totally encloses the semicircular shape of the rubber cone.

Scott said (conversation with the compiler, 21 March 1972) that, T01362, ‘Agrippa’ (T01363), ‘Frumenty’ and ‘Pavan’ result from his attempts to break away from the constructed spatial arrangements of the ‘Dulcimer’ group; he conceived that the line and the shape of coloured forms in space could also produce effects of sculpture. The ‘Curlicue’ series is unique amongst his sculptures in that although none of his sculptures should be seen from a single viewpoint, yet the ochre line running vertically down the edge of the foam rubber determines a main viewpoint.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1970–1972, London 1972.