Lynn Chadwick RA, British, 1914-2003 - Bird VIII, 1959; bronze, signed and numbered 'Chadwick 2/3', stamped 'Susse Fondeur, Paris', H19 x L36 x D15 cm (ARR) Provenance: Sotheby's London, Modern British and Irish Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 6th October 6, 1993, lot 288 (unsold); The Geoffrey and Fay Elliot Collection and thence by descent Exhibited: Galerie Charles Lienhard, Zurich, July 1959 (likely another cast) Literature: Dennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Oxford University Press, 1990, no.292, pp.156, illus. another cast) Note: Leading British post-war sculptor Lynn Chadwick was introduced to an international audience when he was included in the XXVI Venice Biennale in 1952, as a way for the British Pavilion to demonstrate that the success of British sculptors reached beyond Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. In the mid-1950s, he began adding wings to his dancing figure groups, a concept that continued in his work (see lot 13). Around the same time, he started having some works cast in bronze, previously welding iron sculptures himself, which allowed for editions to be made. His sculptures have been referred to as three dimensional drawings. Beginning with abstract shapes, he would add on legs or arms to become animals or figures in motion: “I would call it attitude, you know, the way that can almost make something talk by the way the neck is bent, or the attitude of the head; you can actually make these sculptures talk, they say something according to the exact balance, whereas if they’re absolutely straight… well, I suppose that’s saying something, too” (Farr, p.11) In Bird VIII, the strong angular geometric beak is ready for flight, poised on pin legs. His works are widely collected, in major institutions including the Tate; MOMA, New York and Centre Pompidou, Paris.