Icarus Transformed I 1961

Daedalus, the father of Icarus, who made his wings, was a sculptor, and Ayrton gave this as one of the reasons for his fascination with this myth. He was also trying to find in sculpture 'a paraphrase of the human body' at the moment of death, and had studied photographs of astronauts subjected to gravitational forces that distorted the flesh of their faces. The body of the figure is modelled on an animal's skull. Gallery label, August 2004