Page 52 - Studio International - October 1966

Robert Adams

Charles S. Spencer

Born Northampton 1919; ism in his forms, and indeed in his concept of the artist;
studied evenings and similarities with the Italians Consagra and Pomodoro.
Northampton School of Art
1937-46; taught Central Neither of these national styles has had much influence
School of Arts and Crafts, in Britain, nor do they have the mixture of social con-
London 1949-60; first science and elegance found in Adams. There is nothing
one-man exhibition 1947 self-consciously intellectual or philosophical about him.
Gimpel Fils, where he has Indeed he distrusts ideas and artists with too many ideas
since held frequent — the result, perhaps, of being largely self-taught and
one-man shows; has also
exhibited in Paris, New York, having to work pragmatically and intuitively rather than
Dublin, and in Germany; by premeditated steps.
has participated in inter- Until 1955 Adams worked exclusively in stone and
national exhibitions, wood. Freed from a reserved occupation in 1947 he spent
including Venice Biennales
two years isolated in the country, where wood was avail-
of 1952 and 1962; work in
collections of Arts Council, able and cheap. During nine years of evening classes at
Britain Council, Tate Northampton there had been no sculpture teacher, only
Gallery, and in public life-classes and painting. But he knew the work of Moore
collections in Sao Paulo, and Hepworth, as is proved by the early torsos and
Turin, Michigan, New York;
mother and child groups, and the abstract carvings
commissions include
related to natural forms. By 1947, his first show at
sculpture for King's Heath
School, Northampton; GIMPEL Fibs, the forms were becoming tenuous and linear,
Gelsenkirchen Theatre; exploring space rather than defining mass. This develop-
Hull City Centre; British
ment culminated in the 10-feet-high sculpture commis-
Petroleum building.
sioned by the Arts Council for the Festival of Britain in
1951, more like joinery than carving, a kind of angular
construction clearly influenced by plants and animals.
Though Adams is an honoured and respected figure, it Even before this Adams had become dissatisfied with
would be an exaggeration to suggest that he is widely carving and experimented with wire constructions. By a
known, an influence on the young, or regarded abroad lucky chance in 1949 he was offered a teaching job in the
as a major phenomenon in the British sculptural renais- Design Department of the Central School where he
sance. Even informed members of the art public would eventually learned welding. At that time Butler was the
probably find it difficult to place him chronologically or only British sculptor, except possibly Chadwick, working
stylistically in post-war British art. In fact, he is an almost in welded steel. There was no local tradition, but in
exact contemporary of Armitage, Butler, Chadwick, and Paris Adams had seen and admired the work of Gonzalez,
Meadows, who with the younger sculptors Turnbull, of whose style, and also that of Picasso, there are echoes
Clarke, and Paolozzi 'made a never-to-be forgotten debut in his early, vertical sculpture.
at the 1952 Venice Biennale' (to quote the catalogue of From 1955 he has worked almost exclusively in welded
British Sculpture in the Sixties). steel, with important excursions into stone or concrete
Looking at this group today Adams emerges as the for architectural commissions, and occasional experi-
odd-man-out, confirming Herbert Read's view that 'with ments with aluminium.
one or two exceptions, such as Robert Adams, they are The first wire sculptures were figurative, closely re-
all expressionists'. The tortured human image, which so sembling the open forms of the Arts Council commission;
preoccupied the post-Moore scene, has never involved indeed, there remains in this mature work a constant
Adams. Neither has he played with surrealism, political return to the triangular shapes first seen in the wire
or social comment, or a romantic identification with figures. Moving from wire to flat steel was a more pro-
nature or machines as easy metaphors for the complexity found change. The vertical sculptures of 1955 to 1959,
of life. often light and playful in character, sometimes reminiscent
Not that his work is untouched by these mannerisms; of African sculpture, gave way to heavier, more solid
but they are completely integrated and transformed into frontal images or low-lying horizontal forms. What is
a highly personal, somewhat rigid style. Without tracing basic to the more recent work is an emphasis on dynamic
direct relationships, I find echoes of Russian constructiv- dislocation. This takes the form of a thrusting arm, like