#brian wall

Brian Wall, Steel Construction: Red, Yellow & Blue, c. 1956, painted steel, 124.8 cm.

Christie's

Untitled, 1963. Painted steel, 42 cm. (16.5 in.)

1966

Star form. Bronze, 40,5 cm. (15.9 in.)

Brian Wall, Chorten, 2007

photo by S Richards ...I could fill pages remembering one thing after another. All together made the summer at St. Ives the best beginning to life imaginable. - Virginia Woolf In 1928, the Cornish artist Alfred Wallis and his friends Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood met at St Ives and laid the foundation for the artists' colony of today. In 1939, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo settled in St Ives, attracted by its quiet beauty. In 1993, a branch of the Tate Gallery, the Tate St Ives, opened here. The Tate also looks after the Barbara Hepworth Museum and her sculpture garden. It was the wish of the late sculptor to leave her work on public display in perpetuity. The town also attracted artists from overseas, such as Piet Mondrian, who let the landscape influence their work, and Maurice Sumray, who became a successful and respected contributor to the St Ives art scene when he moved to the town from London in 1968. Prior to the 1940s the majority of artists in St Ives and elsewhere in West Cornwall belonged to the St Ives Society of Artists; however events in the late 1940s led to a growing dispute between the abstract and figurative artists within the group. In 1948 the abstract faction broke away from the St Ives Society, forming the Penwith Society of Artists led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. The studio pottery Troika was set up in St Ives in 1963. English Sculptor Maggi Hambling's in direct connection with St Ives is through her sculpture Scallop which is part of the Tate St Ives Collection In 2003 Hambling was commissioned to produce a sculpture to commemorate Benjamin Britten. The result was Scallop, a pair of oversized, 12 ft high, steel scallop shells installed on Aldeburgh beach (Suffolk). Hambling describes the piece as a conversation with the sea: "An important part of my concept is that at the centre of the sculpture, where the sound of the waves and the winds are focused, a visitor may sit and contemplate the mysterious power of the sea" The sculpture has caused some division amongst the local community with some complaining that the sculpture obstructs the view or is an eyesore that should be moved to Snape, whilst others say that it enhances the view and is a fitting commemoration of Britten that helps to attract tourists. In the first three months of 2004, the sculpture was twice vandalised by pouring paint over it and a poll in the local paper was held to decide whether it should be moved, although the result was 2,163 to 738 in favour of keeping the sculpture. The sculpture has been compared with Nissen hut wreckage or a kitsch mantelpiece ornament. Hambling did not herself make the sculpture: it was produced by a local foundry from a four-inch (102 mm) model supplied by the artist. This sculpture continues to attract controversy, vandalism and opposition from the local community, who seem to object more to where it has been sited than its visual appearance. Evolving directly from the influence of the St. Ives colony, Brian Wall is a sculptor who was one of the first artists to construct abstract sculpture from welded steel. A key member of the St. Ives artists’ colony in Cornwall, a group of British artists that surrounded Barbara Hepworth and painters Ben Nicholson and Patrick Heron in the 1950’s, Wall has remained faithful to constructivist principles of formality and simplicity throughout his career. Wall was influenced by the works of Naum Gabo and Julio Gonzales but also by Japanese culture, Jazz music and Zen Buddhism. Wall served in the RAF in 1951. During his national service he was able to visit Paris as well as enroll in a part-time course at Luton School of Art. On leaving the RAF he was determined to become an artist and set off for the artists’ colony at St. Ives. He worked as a part-time assistant to Barbara Hepworth in St. Ives until 1960 when he moved to London which had been animated by a major exhibition of American Abstract Expressionism the previous year. He helped found the sculpture department at London’s Central School of Art & Design where he taught until 1974. He also taught sculpture at the University of California at Berkeley as a visiting professor of sculpture until 1992. He now divides his time between California and France. Despite the austerity and “toughness” of Wall’s steel beams, circles, squares, and tubes, Wall’s work – both the small and large-scale pieces – conveys a delicacy and formalism that belies the strength of his material. The surfaces are waxed to reveal the tactile nature of the metal or painted a monochromatic color, usually black. In either instance, the result is simplicity, one that is informed by Wall’s interest in Zen philosophy and Japanese calligraphy. Ali, his work purchased for the University of Houston's School of Technology is of painted welded steel. Fabricated out of I-beams and other standard construction material components, Ali is painted in a matte balck paint to emphasize the geometric shape of the work so that the viewer is not distracted from the form of the work. Preferring the clarity of abstraction, strength of Wall’s best sculpture lies in its quality of completeness. The piece was completed and fabricated in the studio of Frank McGuire. Completed in 1978, Ali resides on the North Lawn of the School of Technology.