Lynn Chadwick

Lynn Chadwick is one of the most important 20th century English sculptors working in metal. Not until the mid-1940s did Chadwick, who had worked until then as a draughtsman in architectural offices, turn to sculpture. And since the 1950s he has been combining moving and static elements as well as figurative and abstract elements in his works. Chadwick's sculptures refer above all to the human figure or animal forms. Alongside standing figures, frequently recurring motifs in his work are reclining and seated persons, couples or individuals, as in “Little Girl“. The latter has the sharp rectangular forms and hard-edged outlines typical of Chadwick's sculptures. Without relinquishing the hard and almost crystalline expression, Chadwick alludes in the subtle modelling of the female torso to a softer formal idiom. He highlights the archetypal character of his female and male figures by means of standard geometrical shapes: “Little Girl“ bears a pyramid shape instead of a head, while Chadwick's male figures tend to be defined by rectangular compositions.