
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
£50,000 - £80,000
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Private Collection, U.S.A
Beast XI was conceived the year following Lynn Chadwick's 1956 exhibition at the Venice Biennale. There he was awarded the prestigious International Sculpture Prize, a victory which confirmed Chadwick's standing on the global stage. The artist had previously employed animalistic forms, albeit in a more abstract manner, for works such as Balanced Sculpture (1952) which formed part of the New Aspects of British Sculpture exhibition at the 1952 Venice Biennale (which introduced the 'Geometry of Fear' artists, see footnote for lot 114). In the present example the use of wrought surface and a poise of unease is in keeping with the pre-1955 'Beasts', but the overall form (perhaps insectean, perhaps mammalian) is decidedly more composed. Chadwick had embarked on the first of the 'Beast' series four year prior, and across the next five decades he would return to the subject on more than seventy occasions, confirming its significance within the artists overall practice.