Bronze
H14 x W12 x D6cm
This figure comes from a series of male nudes which focus on the intense musculature and on the masculinity of the male body. He gazes downwards, as if looking beyond the space he occupies on the plinth and into our realm. This maquette marks a turning point in Edwards’ artistic practice as he no longer saw the head as just part of the body, rather it is a vessel in which to see the figure’s inner life. When considering the head Edwards had considered removing the heads from his figures citing that he was thinking “about what Giacometti said about the body being a prop for the gaze” and whether removing the head would free the figure, or deprive it of a focal point. The smooth tactility of the bronze invites our hands to be placed on their shoulder and to enquire as to the thoughts, which cannot be fully determined by the anonymous nature of their face.
The maquette still bears the imprint of his maker’s interventions, mouldings of the clay. These marks are almost like geographical features like the human figure is trying to merge with mineral, which links back to man as landscape.
SOLD
One of the few sculptors who casts his own work, Laurence Edwards is fascinated by human anatomy and the metamorphosis of form and matter that governs the lost-wax process.