Adam's Important Irish Art September 26th 2018

72 61 FREDERICK E. MCWILLIAM HRUA RA (1909-1992) Open Figure (1962) Bronze, 35.5cm long x 18cm deep x 24cm high (14 x 7 x 9½’’) Signed with initials and numbered 2/5 Provenance: With Shambles Art Gallery, Hillsborough, where purchased by current owner. Exhibited: London, Tate Gallery, ‘F.E. McWilliam’, 1989. Literature: Denise Ferran, ‘F.E. McWilliam at Banbridge’, 2008, illustrated p.77. F.E Mcwilliam had an extraordinarily diverse and prolific career. As he often worked in series, this allowed him to make quite drastic changes to his work as he moved from one project to another. He remarked in an interview in 1983 to Louisa Buck for the Irish Art Series, “I believe that a seam should be stopped before it is exhausted” (Buck, Louisa, 1983, Transcript of an interview with F. E McWilliam for the Irish Art Series, Tate Gallery Online Archive). These bodies of works exist almost as separate entities within his oeuvre as a whole. They are distinctive because they are different. Open Figure dates to 1962, a decade before his Women of Belfast series (Lot 56) and the shift in style, let alone subject matter is striking. On the surface to someone unfamiliar with his sculpture, it might be difficult to see the comparisons but his dedication to the human form is supreme. As is his interest in craftsmanship and there is a consistent attention to detail and a discipline in how he handled his material, whether wood, bronze or stone. The element of design was very important in his work and he made extensive studies and drawings before embarking on the sculpture. Chance did not play a part in his creative process, through drawing he attempted to visualise the sculptural idea. After spending most of World War II in service in India, McWilliam returned to London to teach at Chelsea School of Art and at the Slade and he resumed working in a great variety of media, including terracotta, stone, wood and bronze. His mechanomorphic bronze figures of the early 1960s dynamically challenge the traditional aesthetic of reclining sculptural figures. In this present example the body is abstracted by simplifying the form to its base geometric ele- ments. The square head of the figure responds to the triangular shape delineating the upper torso, upon which an arm rests. The sharp point of the elbow flows organically down the line of the leg that extends outward to the feet. Viewed from above the sculpture has a sense of movement, the surfaces of the body shifting as the lines of the form cross over each other. The opening at either end of the sculpture acts as both the base for it to rest on, and a dynamic and imaginative expression of the traditional reclining position. This work changes depending on your viewpoint. By breaking up the traditional contours of human form, McWilliam was able to express the natural shifts in perspective. The body is never experienced visually as single whole entity but rather as a flowing organic form through which representational and abstract forms could interact. Niamh Corcoran, August 2018 € 10,000 - 15,000