Page 48 - Studio International - September 1966

Born London 1938; worth, despite the echoes of Brancusi's disciplined sim- school. At first sight it is a huge, suspended phallus; but
Wimbledon School of Art plicity. McWilliam on the other hand evades the issue there is something oriental in the pagoda-like framework,
1958-61; Royal College of Art
1961-5; Group exhibitions: in a more masculine, if still entirely English manner. reminders of Japanese films about medieval times, and
A.I.A. Gallery 1963-4, Compare his early wood and stone carvings with the for those who know Greece, suggestions of open temple
Towards Art: sculptors from recent bronzes; there is an impression of embarass- forms and the heavy atmosphere of Mycenae.
the Royal College of Art, Arts
Council, London 1965, ment ending in facetiousness. Pye's early training at Wimbledon was based on life-
Contemporary British William Pye gives the impression of understanding the modelling and he is still deeply involved in the human
sculpture, Arts Council problems more deeply. His visual imagination is deeply form. He soon concentrated on the female torso, gra-
Touring Exhibition 1966;
first one-man exhibition rooted in figuration. He opposes the idea of the artist as dually isolating sections, like the stomach and breasts
Redfern Gallery, London, a manufacturer of ideas—in the Duchamp, Dadaist, Pop, into erotic concentrations, enormous enlargements of
Sept. 1966; teaches at Op lineage: 'There's a terrible misapprehension attached segments seen under a microscope. This refined simpli-
Norwich and at Central
School of Arts and Crafts, to the relevance of ideas. Critics are often to blame be- fying of complex forms and responses into a few highly-
London cause they look for brightness, something new. Ideas charged shapes is the key to his mature work. Added to
don't matter to me at all; I don't mind if, in terms of the lessons learned from Brancusi and Greece were other
sculpture, I have one idea all my life. What matters is vital strains : Indian erotic sculpture at the Victoria and
the quality of the idea and commitment, the kind of Albert Museum and the directness of bone structures at
obsession which made Rembrandt paint his self-portrait the Science Museum (both studied whilst at the Royal
all his life; or Giacometti's courage in facing up to life College), and the 'theatrical' presentation learned from
and his ruthlessness in forming a personal image.' Giacometti. After the huge early works, both the forms
In this sense Pye has only one idea. It was fully present hung in wooden frames and the fungoid, projecting
in the remarkable giant sculpture Great Deity Enshrined, reliefs, Pye has worked on a much smaller scale, placing a
made in 1964-5 in his last year at college. Eight feet soft, flowing form on a hard base.
high, ten feet long, it is a work of youthful bravura, made This idea has been explored with great sensitivity in a
during the summer vacation when space was available at series of works shown at the REDFERN GALLERY. In some

Great Deity Enshrined 1964-5 Deity Enshrined 1964
Wood, mild steel and cast aluminium Wood, steel and cast bronze
96 x 120 x 84 in. Height 7 ft Width 4 ft.