Not on display
- Artist
- Reg Butler 1913–1981
- Medium
- Graphite, crayon and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 267 × 197 mm
frame: 500 × 947 × 32 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1957
- Reference
- A01062
Display caption
These drawings were made as preliminary sketches for Butler's monument to 'The Unknown Political Prisoner', a tower designed to commemorate those who had been imprisoned or lost their lives in the cause of freedom. The drawings represent the heads of three women, described by the artist as witnesses who remember the prisoner. Butler envisaged that the viewer would be 'drawn by their gaze into contemplation of the upper vastness of the tower.'
Gallery label, September 2004
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