56
42
Frederick E. McWilliamHRUA RA (1909-1992)
Box I
Bronze, 20cm (8”) high
Signed with initials and numbered 5/5
Provenance:The Gordon Gallery, Derry, 26th November 1990 where
purchased by the current owner. (Copy of the original receipt available)
Exhibited :
F.E. Mc William
Exhibition The Waddington Gallery , London 1971
F.E. Mc William Retrospective
F.E. McWilliam Retrospective
travelling exhibition, Arts
Council of Ireland,The Ulster Museum, April/May 1981, Douglas Hyde Gallery, May/
June 1981, Crawford Gallery, Cork, July/August 1981, Cat. No. 87
F.E. Mc William
Exhibition ,The Gordon Gallery, Derry 1984 Cat. No. 1
Literature:
F.E. Mc William Retrospective
1981 Illustrated P 67
The sculpture of F.E. Mc William
by Denise Ferran and Valerie Holman 2012
Cat. No. 350
Frederick Edward McWilliam was an incredibly diverse artist. McWilliam did not limit himself to any single
approach or movement and his constant experimentation with media and style is characteristic of this exploratory
attitude. McWilliam was at the centre of an interesting and talented group of British and Irish artists in the mid
20
th
century. He met Henry Moore through his friend George McCann while he was still a second-year student
at the Slade School of Fine Art, and they became good friends. Parallels in subject matter and formal exploration
can be traced throughout their careers and Moore was a role model and mentor of sorts to McWilliam. McWil-
liam made lasting friendships with other artists living and working in London at the same time. He shared a
studio with John Luke while they were both students at the Slade, and his inner circle included Francis Bacon
and William Scott.
Throughout his career, McWilliam tended to work in series, exploring a theme in a succession of variations.
Characteristic of his pre and post-war sculpture was his exploration of ‘the complete fragment’, the part standing
for the whole, in works described by their titles including:
Mandible
(1938) and
Eye, Nose and Cheek
(1939; Tate
Collection). His later
Legs
series, including
Legs Static
and
Umbilicus
, was a more playful excursion into the same
territory. While much of his sculpture focuses on his own artistic concerns there is an element of social engage-
ment running through it. A large part of his career was devoted to public sculpture and these significant works
have made a lasting impact in their locations in universities and hospitals in particular. He taught sculpture at the
Slade and exhibited all over the world, and although he left Banbridge in 1928, he never forgot his Irish connec-
tions. His sculptures are visually intriguing, expressive and imaginative.While often Surrealist in tone, they always
retain an inherent humanity at their core.
Mc William had been going through a mosaic period between 1967 - 69 after which in 1969 he started one of his
most successful series of small bronzes of
Girls
.This he continued until he commenced his
Women of Belfast
Series
in 1972.
Box I
is one of the earliest pieces in the
Girls
series and was completed in 1969. It and the rest of the
series contrasts the highly polished external surface in which he has added incised fine lines to define the female
form and in this case the finely modeled interior which seems dull in comparison.
We thank Dr Denise Ferran whose writings on F. E. Mc William have formed the basis for this catalogue entry.
€8,000 - 12,000
