Page 34 - Studio International - February 1966

Bryan Kneale : sculptor of Interior Form

by Charles S. Spencer

In almost every sense Bryan Kneale is an odd-man-out tinguishes them from the detached calm of English art.
in contemporary British sculpture. He is neither part of But when talking of English painters Kneale expressed a
post-Moore literary humanism, nor involved in the special fondness for Joseph Wright of Derby—'for his
reaction to it; neither a Caroesque academician nor a heavy solemnity which I think is a bit like my work',
committed social commentator. and for Stubbs 'for his perfection of analysis, particu-
A large, gentle man, with the withdrawn, isolated larly in the drawings'. On reflection, it is probably the
personality of those who suffer from deafness, he dis- sculptural isolation of form in these painters which
cusses his work and ideas with modesty but an articu- attracts Kneale.
late enquiry of one seeking words for complex, often 'I always wanted to be a sculptor; if you look carefully
inexplicable creative processes. Unaware at the time of at my painting you will find the seeds of all my later
Born Isle of Man 1930; his birth-place, I was surprised when he gave as one work'.
Douglas School of Art 1947; reason for the shape of much of his sculpture the fact But at the Royal Academy Schools there was no
Royal Academy Schools
that he was born on an island. 'Islands are complete opportunity to work with metal. 'I never had the
1948-9; Prix de Rome; lived
in Italy 1949-51 ; first one- little worlds, floating, so to speak, in space. This has slightest urge to work in clay or plaster. I vaguely knew
man exhibition of paintings, something to do with the sort of sculptural ideas which I needed direct contact with the final material'. His
Redfern Gallery, London, attract me'. At the same time he readily suggests that objection to stone was its innate sculptural quality.
1954; First Prize, Daily the greatest single factor in his development was the 'Stone is what I call an external material, whereas I
Express Young Artists Exhi-
two years spent in Italy, between 1949 and 1951, on needed to explore internally'.
bition, 1954; started to weld
in 1959 ; exhibited sculpture winning the Prix de Rome. More than anything else, This is the fundamental clue to Kneale's work and per-
at Redfern Gallery 1960; the work of the Italian Futurists, especially Boccioni's sonality. As an artist he needs to feel the ultimate
participated in Battersea Park drawings of heads, opened up a world of complex power to dominate and transform materials. There is no
International Exhibition of visual possibility. romantic attitude to the material—to the beauty or
Sculpture 1963 and British
Kneale first came to public notice as a painter, and grandeur of stone or wood, which imposes itself on the
Sculpture in the Sixties, Tate
indeed won the Prix de Rome in that capacity. The final statement.
Gallery, 1965; represented
in collections of Tate Gallery, spiky imagery of his early work had much in common One consequence is that Kneale's work has none of
Arts Council, Contemporary with Sutherland ; and, in the cubist-surrealistic forms the easy, pleasant reassurance of Moore or Hepworth,
Art Society, National Gallery the influence of Picasso, and after his return from Italy, or of Arp and Brancusi. His shapes do not echo nature;
of Victoria, Australia,
National Gallery of New of course, of the Futurists. The colour is dull and mono- they are heavy, often awkward, sometimes disturbing.
Zealand, Beaverbrook chrome, the shapes hard and metallic. There is an He cannot limit himself to classical harmony. The
Foundation, Canada, etc. aggressiveness, an emotional expressionism, which dis- aggressive, surrealistic element is part of the need to

Left
Armour 1961
Forged Iron
Height 9 ft 4 in.
Loughborough Technical College
Right
Slate Hook 1963
Forged iron and slate
Height 12 ft x 10 ft x 7 ft
L.C.C. Commission
at Fenwick Place. Stockwell
66