Agrippa

Tim Scott b. 1937

T01363 Agrippa 1964

Not inscribed.
Painted fibreglass and perspex, 74¼ x 44½ x 44½ (188.5 x 113 x 113).
Presented by Alistair McAlpine 1971.
Exh: Ner General ion, Whitechapel Art Gallery, March–April 1965 (21); Young British Sculptors, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, April–June 1967; Young British Sculptors, Düsseldorf, June–July 1967; British Sculpture and Painting, Whitechapel Art Gallery, December 1967–January 1968; The Alistair McAlpine Gift, Tate Gallery, June–August 1971 (27, repr. ).
Lit: Anne Seymour, in catalogue of The Alistair McAlpine Gift, 1971, pp. 72–85.
Repr: Art forum, III, May 1965, p. 34.

The sculpture is in an edition of three.

The artist said (conversation with the compiler, 21 March 1971), that he saw the forms of ‘Agrippa’ and ‘Pavan’ as the immediate romantic successors of ‘Curlicue’, In both sculptures sprouting globular shapes are juxtaposed to and contrast with forms constituted by flat planes. In T01363 a perspex box encases a column (as found in ‘Curlicue’) which blossoms above into a cluster of brightly coloured pink and orange spheres. The artist believes (op. cit.) that in ‘Agrippa’, ‘Pavan’, and ‘Frumenty’ he was using colour constructively. Such an activity was partly determined by his interest in Matisse’s ‘Papiers découpés’.

The artist said making ‘Agrippa’ was like making a sculpture of a flower. However, he regards this romantic gesture as a failure, although a necessary reaction to ‘Curlicue’. Because he was unable to fix tall glass sheets together Scott used acrylic sheets instead for the box. However he would like to replace them by glass, if this were possible, since he intends that the box should provide a sharp brittle-edged base in contrast to the voluptuous forms of the semi-spheres. The semi-spheres were made by moulding glassfibre around blown-up balloons.

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