Robert Adams, (British, 1917-1984)

Seated Figure 29.3 cm. (11 1/2 in.) high (including the wooden base)

Seated Figure
oak
29.3 cm. (11 1/2 in.) high (including the wooden base)
Carved in 1947

Provenance
The Artist, thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Gimpel Fils, Robert Adams: Sculpture and Ern Brooks: Drawings, 25 November 1947-3 January 1948, cat.no.15

Literature
Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1992, p.16 (ill.b&w)

Seated Figure is one of twenty sculptures that Adams produced for his first exhibition, staged at Gimpel Fils. Established by brothers Charles and Peter Gimpel in 1946, Robert Adams was amongst the first to enter their stable of artists and he would continue to show with the gallery throughout his life. The exhibition comprised of primarily abstract organic forms, with just a small number of figural carvings. Although as Adams' output developed abstraction would dominate entirely, Alastair Grieve notes that at this date 'any distinction between figurative and abstract is unimportant for what really concerned him from the start was the unity of form, scale, and material and the suggestion of pent-up movement by asymmetric balance' (Alastair Grieve, The Sculpture of Robert Adams, Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1992, p.15).

Until his move to London in 1946 to pursue art full time, Adams resided in the village of Hardingstone, Northamptonshire. By day, he made a living as a tradesman and by night, studied at the nearby Northampton School of Art. Sculpture rapidly developed as his chosen practice, an admirer of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Jacob Epstein, he became highly adept especially in wood carving and the nuanced selection of specific grains to suit particular needs. In 1944, to coincide with the occasion of the unveiling of his Northampton Madonna and Child, Henry Moore paid a visit to the art school. Adams highly admired the great artist and had prepared a small carving on the same theme to show to Moore. Although the outcome of the visit is not recorded, Adams continued to follow principles studied from Moore's work, and the direct impact is most tangible in these few early figurative works. Indeed, the similarities in pose between Seated Figure and Moore's Northampton Madonna and Child are readily apparent; the firmly planted feet, rounded knees and curved hips, the low-slung bench and slight turn to the right all owe a debt to Moore's commission.