William Turnbull

Head

1960

© William Turnbull. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2019

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Not on display

Artist: William Turnbull 1922–2012
Medium: Bronze, wood and limestone
Dimensions: Object: 1162 x 540 x 305 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1961
Reference: T00424

Catalogue entry

T00424 HEAD 1960

Inscr. ‘T [within a circle] 60’ on underside, near support.
Bronze, 12 1/4×21 1/4×10 1/2 (32×54×27), on stone cylindrical block, 10×14 1/2 diameter (25·5×37), and rosewood stand, 23 1/2×12 diameter (59·5×30).
Purchased from the Molton Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1961.
Exh: Molton Gallery, April–May 1961 (13).

The sculptor wrote (31 May 1961) of ‘Head’ that ‘it was made during early 1960 and is one of the most recent of a number of heads done since 1955. They have in common a concern to make a head an autonomous object rather than a fragment. The earlier sculptures had a heavily incised surface and a rather battered look as if everything had happened to them; these later heads are more like things in the process of ripening.’

T00424 is a unique cast.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II