ROBERT ADAMS (BRITISH 1917-1984) CRYPTIC FORM No. 1, 1980 (OPUS 394) stamped, dated and numbered ADAMS 1980 1/6 (on the underside), cast in an edition of six, bronze 31cm high, 17cm wide (12 ¼in high, 6 ¾in wide) Literature: Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, 1992, no.662, illustrated p.239 (another cast)The three works by Robert Adams presented from Hugo Burge’s collection in this sale are a perfect snapshot of three decades of the artist’s output. They encapsulate his interest in screen-like forms that play with the notion of ‘flatness’ within the overall three-dimensional context of sculpture.Adams was part of a ‘golden generation’ of British sculptors who came to prominence in the early 1950s, achieving almost immediate international acclaim and recognition, not least for their ability to capture the uncanny and uneasy mix of optimism and despair that followed World War Two, the liberation of the concentration camps and the dropping of the atomic bomb. Adams was part of the group selected by Herbert Read to exhibit in the British Pavilion at the 1952 Venice Biennale – when he coined the phrase ‘the geometry of fear’ to capture a particular quality of these young sculptors’ work, with their spiky and attenuated forms that spoke to the existential crisis of the post-war period. However, as Alastair Grieve noted in the Preface to his catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work, Adams’ sculpture ‘differs markedly from that of…his contemporaries…as it is purely visual, totally unliterary, constructed from abstract forms and spaces…Abstract art opened the way for a truly expressive use of materials, unhindered by the restraints of representation.’ (Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, 1992, p.9) A work such as Screen Form has in fact more in common with an even younger generation of British sculptors such as Anthony Caro (who had begun to make his first cut and welded works in 1960), as well as the American minimalists such as Robert Morris, Donald Judd and Richard Serra – although in Adams’ rough handling of the material, the worn and jagged edges of the plates, he holds something of the memory of the post-war world of twisted metal and bombsites. Also amongst his peers – Lynn Chadwick, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull amongst others – Adams remains relatively undervalued and unheralded – something that no doubt drew Hugo Burge, always a champion of the good but overlooked, to Adams’ work. This could be due simply to the fact that all of Adams’ early works were unique, made of forged and welded steel (he didn’t start making editions until the late 1960s) and so his work couldn’t proliferate on the back of this early critical success. And partly because – like his contemporary Kenneth Armitage, to similar result – Adams refused to be pinned down in the visual language of his 1950s success, but innovated restlessly, not least in becoming ever more abstract. Slim Form, for example, brims with 1960s optimism, of Harold Wilson’s pledge to harness the ‘white heat of technology’, its smooth, polished surface making it the perfect embodiment of both the atomic age and the age of Concorde. In contrast to his sculpture of the previous decade, there are no jagged edges to arrest the eye, to turn you back on yourself. Instead, Adams’ sculpture flows with the space surrounding it and so returns somewhat to the conceptual world occupied by Henry Moore – the artist against whom Read presented the ‘geometry of fear’ artists as a counterpoint. Yet for Moore, this fluidity always stands aligned to the shapes of the landscape, whereas Adams’ art is committed to the urban – although in Cryptic Form we can perhaps see a later career shift back to something more allusive and metaphorical. In this, he shares something in common with his contemporary Turnbull, another artist much admired by Hugo Burge. As the forces of post-Modernism swirled around in the 1980s, these two veteran sculptors embarked on making, to use Turnbull’s expression, universal totems ‘beyond time’.
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Assorted 1990's vintage clothes to include a Jaeger black dress with multi coloured spots, a Jaeger black silk top with multi-coloured spots and three quarter length sleeves, a Jaeger brightly coloured printed cotton skirt front button fastening, printed cotton top, a turquoise sun dress labelled Sherwood, drop waist and broad straps, a Lorna Wiles black tiered circle skirt with screen print grey bubbles, an Ariella purple lame evening dress, a Hampton Dress Co. full length dress front buttons, Burbright blue and cream printed dress with flounced hem, a cheesecloth shirt dress, a St Michael cotton dress with dropped waist and pintucked pleats Liberty style print size 18, and various other garments (2 boxes)
Indian embroidered silk skirt, heavily detailed with faux pearls, gold and silver thread, red and gold beads, with a drawstring waist, an Indian style turquoise silk dress screen printed with gilt floral design, gold coloured ric rac detail and puff sleeves, a 1950's rayon embroidered evening dress in mustard colour but damaged, a red and black flamenco style full skirt, and two other items (1 box)
The Jun-type porcelain shaped as a fan-form inset, mounted on a wooden screen.(Overall height 10 inches, height of porcelain 2 3/4 inches)No condition report? Click below to request one. *Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact and Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. Please contact the specialist department to request further information or additional images that may be available.Request a condition report
American Film Awards, five American Awards comprising a 1967 San Francisco Film Festival (large statue on plinth 36cm), Television Academy award - The Hollywood Chapter June 1967, USA Festival Association (35cm high), Screen Directors Guild Award ( 11cm diameter), California Radio & TV News award Commentary 'Mexican Prisoner Exchange' KNXT (33cm high microphone on wood base) and Academy of Television Arts & Science (The Morning Show Chicago Viewers 1964-65) all sound condition
Picturegoer / Picture Show / TV / Annuals, Picturegoer Annuals 12 copies dating from 1950 to 1960 with one 1948 together with a Picture Show (Who's Who on the Screen) four TV Fun Annuals 1957 - 1960, 2 ATV Show Books, TV Mirror Annual 1956, 2 The Television Annuals 1958 & 1959 and two sport books all in fairly good condition with a little damage to some dust jackets
A collection of autographs, from British TV, film and sport (mainly on photos) to include: Terry Wogan, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor, Phil Collins, Tom Jones, Status Quo, Sir Norman Wisdom, Jean Alexander, Wendy Richards, Jane Fonda, David Suchet, Paul Daniels & Debbie McGee, David Jason, Julie Andrews, Coldplay, Angela Lansbury, Kris Akabusi, Sally Gunnell, Richard Briars, Christopher Timothy, Henry Cooper, Maggie Smith, Linda Bellingham, Steve Cram, James Cracknell, Cliff Richard, John Cleese, the cast of The Royal, the cast of Holby City and many more. Also included is the script for Early Doors, signed by James McAvoy, Mark Benton, Maxine Peak and others, along with a letter detailing the signatories and mention of "up and coming" James McAvoy Screen worn top, worn by Leanne Battersby in Coronation Street. Please note, not all are photographed, please see images for a full list (2 pages)
A collection of mostly handmade beadwork, embroidery and stumpwork (some possibly Indian/Middle East) to include a embroidered and metal thread panel of the Taj Mahal, two embroidered and sequined stumpwork peacocks, an embroidered panel with beetle-wing detail, a beadwork scalloped panel, a heavily beaded front skirt panel, a peach chiffon beadwork and embroidery skirt panel, a beadwork screen panel, etc. Metal thread sequined fringed panel 125 cm x 50 cm, beadwork scalloped panel approximately 210 cm long x 13.5 cm high.
London Brighton & South Coast Railway porters platform Bell Push. Hand engraved brass PORTERS BELL and mounted on its original backing board, measures 6in diameter. Together with a British Railways screen printed aluminium sign PORTERS BELL measures 11.25in x 6in. Both in ex railway condition and from Bognor Regis Station. (2 items)
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