Dimensions: object: 1613 x 430 x 495 mm, 62 kg
Copyright: © William Turnbull. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is William Turnbull's 'Idol 2', a bronze sculpture standing over 1.6 meters tall. The texture and raw quality of the bronze are really striking. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Turnbull's process here is critical. The rough texture wasn't accidental. It speaks to a direct engagement with the material, blurring the lines between traditional sculpting and something more primal. Editor: Primal? Curator: Yes. Think about the labor involved in bronze casting, the industrial processes, and then consider how he's referencing ancient idols. He is taking industrial materiality and asking us to consider its relationship to labor and our consumption of art. What do you think? Editor: That gives me a fresh perspective. I was so focused on the form, I overlooked the material process. Thanks. Curator: My pleasure. Always consider the means of production!
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The majority of Turnbull's sculptures of the mid - 1950s are very simplified upright forms of human height standing directly on the ground. This is one of a series of 'Idols' made between 1955-7 where the human figure has been refined and streamlined so that it resembles a spear or leaf shape, sometimes incised with surface marks. The integral base suggests feet and the sculpture possesses an elementary nose and breasts indicating a female figure. This generalised human form evokes sculpture of a much earlier period, for example from ancient Greece or Egypt. There are echoes of the sculpture of Giacometti, whom Turnbull met in the 1940s in Paris. Gallery label, August 2004
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