William Turnbull

Catalogue entry

T03271 AXE-HEAD TORSO 1979

Stamped ‘T’ and inscribed ‘6/9’ and ‘79’ at bottom of reverse
Bronze, 13 1/8×11 7/8×2 5/8 (33.3×30×6.7)
Presented by the Sainsbury Charitable Fund through the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1981
Prov: The artist; Waddington Galleries
Lit: As for T03270

See entry on T03270,.

Among the associations which this work carries for Turnbull are a classical figure sculpture which has lost its arms; a Viking head; a bull's head; and an ancient hammer head or adze, in obsidian, possibly Mexican, which he has owned for thirty years. The vertical incisions on the reverse suggest among other things hair and cosmetics.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984

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