Dimensions: object: 318 x 178 x 229 mm, 9.8 kg
Copyright: © The estate of Frank Dobson | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This is Frank Dobson's sculpture, "Sir Osbert Sitwell, Bt," currently held in the Tate Collections. Editor: It's startling! That polished bronze surface gives it an almost inhuman, idealized quality. Curator: Dobson was a key figure in British modernism, and portraiture offered him avenues to explore form and volume. Sitwell, of course, was a prominent literary figure and patron. Editor: The sheen suggests a kind of timelessness, but also feels like a mask. Is it meant to project power, or reveal something hidden? Curator: Consider the context: the interwar period, a society grappling with rapid change. Sitwell, through his writing and social influence, was shaping cultural discourse. Dobson immortalizes him. Editor: Fascinating! The symbol of bronze suggests enduring fame, but that gleaming surface also hints at a certain artifice. I appreciate how this single work evokes such a spectrum of ideas. Curator: Absolutely, Dobson's sculpture invites us to consider how individuals become symbols, and the power of representation in shaping cultural memory.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dobson-sir-osbert-sitwell-bt-n05938
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Frank Dobson was a sculptor and painter associated with the post-impressionist and, briefly, vorticist movements in Britain. In 1921 he met Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969), an establishment figure and writer of short stories, travel books, essays, poetry and art criticism, who sat for him for three months. During one of the sittings, Sitwell met TE Lawrence, known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, who bought the bust and later bequeathed it to the Tate. Lawrence described it as ‘appropriate, authentic and magnificent, in my eyes. I think it’s his finest piece of portraiture and in addition it’s as loud as the massed bands of the Guards.’ Gallery label, September 2016
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