Tag: sculpture

Designer Desire: Eoghan Bridge

Montage of Eoghan Bridge sculptures Portrait of Eoghan Bridgecredit

Eoghan Bridges (b. 1963) is an Edinburgh-born, Yorkshire-based artist. He’s a second generation sculptor working in a number of mediums, including bronze, ceramic, resin and aluminium.

His subject matter is often human and equine forms, regularly within the same piece.

I have no background involving horses and I don’t ride. But the horse has such a strong history in art, and its role in building and transport has been fundamental to civilisation.
I find the combination of horse and figure fascinating – it is the subtle composition, almost intuitive. I can express any feeling of emotion through the horse and rider.

Eoghan has endured many tragic experiences in his life, and these have infused into his work.

He sells via his own website and those of a number of galleries, including Kilmorack Gallery and Iona House Gallery.

Additional image credits:

Saatchi Art | Strathearn Gallery

Designer Desire: Ruth Asawa

Montage of Ruth Asawa wire sculptures | H is for Home

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was a California-born, Japanese-American fine artist whose practise involved creating large-scale sculpture using woven wire. Her back-story is both tragic and inspiring.

In 1942, during World War II and after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, Asawa’s father (who’d been living in the U.S.A. for forty years) was arrested and taken to New Mexico to be interned. She, her mother and five of her siblings were also interned – in Arkansas. Ruth didn’t see her father for 6 years. One of her sisters, who was on a trip to Japan at the time, was barred from re-entering the US; she had to spend the rest of the war away from her family.

Despite all this, in 1994, Asawa shared:

I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the internment, and I like who I am.

In 1939, in a school competition, she won 1st prize for her drawing of the Statue of Liberty – a project to produce an artwork that represents what it means to be an American. While at internment school, she gained a scholarship from a Quaker organisation to attend teacher training college in Milwaukee. Later at college in North Carolina, she was tutored by Buckminster Fuller, John Cage, Franz Kline and Josef Albers.

Her balloon-shaped wire works were originally inspired by Mexican basket makers she encountered during a trip to the country in 1947.

I was interested in it because of the economy of a line, making something in space, enclosing it without blocking it out. It’s still transparent. I realized that if I was going to make these forms, which interlock and interweave, it can only be done with a line because a line can go anywhere.

Asawa’s artworks sell at luxury auction houses such as Bonhams and Christie’s, often fetching millions of U.S. dollars.

For those like us who can’t afford an original example of her work, there are numerous books about her an her work that are available from Amazon and eBay. Titles include: A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa by Andrea D’Aquino, Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase, The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air by Daniell Cornell, Ruth Asawa: Life’s Work by Tamara Schenkenberg, Aruna D’souza, et al. and Ruth Asawa: A Sculpting Life by Traci Van Wagoner Joan Schoettler.

Later this year (2020), The U.S. Postal Service will be issuing a series of commemorative stamps with a selection of Asawa’s designs.

Portrait of Ruth Asawacredit

Additional image credits:

Bonhams | Christies

Designer Desire: Arthur Dooley

Montage of Arthur Dooley sculptures | H is for Home

This week’s artist, Arthur Dooley, was featured on Antiques Roadshow recently when a member of the public brought in examples of his work to be assessed. We fell in love with his modernist designs.

Arthur Dooley (1929-1994) was a 20th century sculptor and fine artist who hailed from Liverpool. He lived a full and colourful life. He began his working career as a welder at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. In 1945 he enlisted in the Irish Guards, becoming a piper in the regiment’s band. He remained in service for years before going AWOL… to join the Palestine Liberation Army. He was later caught and court-martialed.

After his release, he became a cleaner at Saint Martin’s School of Art, where he enrolled in a course in 1953.

On his return to Liverpool to set up in his own studio, he financed his artistic ambitions by working at the Dunlop rubber factory in Speke and as a park warden for the local constabulary.

His sculptures were mainly religious in nature, constructed from scrap metal or bronze. It was while he was in the forces that he converted to Catholicism.

He produced the stations of the cross to be found in the Grade II listed St Mary’s RC Church in Leyland, Lancashire.

In 1970, he was the subject of an episode of ‘This is Your Life’ (included in our YouTube compilation below).

In 1971 he was commissioned to design a piece of artwork depicting the creation of the atomic bomb, aptly named ‘Splitting the Atom’. He was given ten tons of magnetic steel and two 37-inch pole tips (previously designed by Sir John Cockcroft) taken from the first small cyclotron to operate the USA.

In 1974, he created the first ever statue to commemorate the Beatles which was erected on top of Eric’s Live Bar located in Mathew Street, (of course in) Liverpool. It depicts ‘Mother’ Mary cradling her ‘Babies’, the Beatles.

Also in 1974, he was commissioned by the International Brigade Association and funded by the Trade Unions and the Labour movement to create a statue – La Pasionaria (the Passion Flower) – the nickname of Dolores Ibarruri a Basque freedom-fighter at the forefront of the Republican and Communist movements during the Spanish Civil War. Dooley was a member of the Communist Party.

He made two works for the octagonal Gustav Adolf Church or Scandinavian Seamen’s Church located in Park Lane, Liverpool – ‘Madonna’ and ‘Christ’.

‘Black Christ’ in Princes Park Methodist Church, Toxteth, ‘Dachau’ in St Anne’s, Royton and ‘Madonna and Child’ at St Faith’s, Crosby are more of his works.

Examples of his works come up for sale at auction on occasion.

The 17th of January (the artist’s birthday) is celebrated as Dooley Day with events around his home city.

Portrait of Arthur Dooleycredit

Additional image credits:

Liverpool Echo | Liverpool Monuments | Liverpool Picturebook | Science and Technology Facilities Council

Designer Desire: Andy Goldsworthy

Mosaic of works by Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy OBE is probably my favourite public artist. I’ve never actually seen any of his artworks in real life, but I have a few of his books including Wood and Stone.

His work is hugely varied; from delicate, ephemeral pieces created from autumnal leaves or blocks of ice, to robust dry stone walls and sculptures that will survive for centuries. He uses all manner of natural materials; clay, flowers, bark, grass, sand, icicles and twigs amongst many others.

He explains his work much better than I ever could:

Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit.

Andy Goldsworthy, 2006

When I finish the ephemeral work it decays, whereas the moment the permanent projects are finished is the moment they begin…

Andy Goldsworthy, 2018

Have a look at the trailer below for the 2018 documentary film, entitled Leaning Into the Wind. It gives a tiny insight into his methods and ethos.

Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy ©Stewart Attwoodcredit