Oliffe Richmond

Catalogue entry

T02405 TRIPOD IV 1973

Not inscribed

Oakwood secured with steel bolts and nuts, 123 1/4 × 65 3/8 × 46 (311.3 × 166 × 177)
Purchased from the artist's widow (Grant-in-Aid) 1979

Exh: Oliffe Richmond, Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, January–February 1976 (one of 14 works in wood, nos. 1–14, not individually titled)

Born in Tasmania, Oliffe Richmond studied sculpture at the East Sydney Technical College. Following the award of a New South Wales Travelling Scholarship in 1948 he moved to England, working as an assistant to Henry Moore in 1949–50. In the 1950s and part of the 1960s Richmond's work, in bronze, was concerned mainly with the human figure, either singly or in groups. Towards the end of the 1960s he started to make abstract sculpture, both in bronze and aluminium often suggesting the human figure. From 1970 until his death he often worked in wood; some of his works in this medium were 10 feet (c. 3 metres) or more high, as is ‘Tripod IV’ 1973, in which barrel staves were used in the construction.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1978-80: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1981

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