Ghisha Koenig

Metal Punchers I

1957

© Estate of Ghisha Koenig

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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1950

Free entry
Artist
Ghisha Koenig 1921–1993
Medium
Terracotta on wooden base
Dimensions
Object: 500 x 600 x 310 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1995
Reference
T06952

Display caption

Koenig was interested in the lives of the working class and from the mid-1950s onwards she regularly sketched people working in factories. These drawings were the source material for her sculptures which capture people in all their physical diversity, performing their allotted tasks with varying
degrees of enthusiasm. As such they were not idealised visions of the dignity of labour but purported to be truthful records of factory life.

Gallery label, September 2016

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