John Davies, Rare Cast Painted Bronze Head Sculpture British Realist Sculptor John Davies, 1991

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John Davies (Cheshire, 1946), British sculptor. Bronze sculpture head Unique cast (1/1) This was shown at Marlborough Fine Art (London) … Read more John Davies (Cheshire, 1946), British sculptor. Bronze sculpture head Unique cast (1/1) This was shown at Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd in a show called John Davies New Sculpture. approximately 13 X 10 X 10 on metal (bronze) base John Davies started his career in the field of painting, studying at art schools in Hull and Manchester and completing his training at the prestigious Slade School in London between 1968 and 1969. In 1972 he had his first solo exhibition, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, to which he returned three years later to present his sculptures: lifesize polychrome figures with a “realistic” appearance (fitted with fibreglass eyes and wearing outdoor or work clothes and shoes), generally arranged in pairs or groups, accompanied by a series of large heads with masks and other items that distorted their features. The dramatic theatrical effect of the installation surprised the public and the London critics, who discovered the work of a realistic figurative sculptor who kept his distance from the abstract modes that predominated in British sculpture at the time. His first works were inspired by Surrealism. In the early 1970´s he moved to a more realist style. He also worked in painting and drawing. During the eighties his work gradually abandoned the more or less illusionist references to reality and he began to paint his sculptures grey, avoiding giving them a “natural” appearance and even incorporating drawing in them. During this period he worked on several series of small or life-size sculptures, showing self absorbed nude figures climbing ropes or steps or hanging on trapezes as if they were circus acrobats. Among his best known works are the series of heads made in the eighties and nineties on various scales, from life-size and polychromed painted small items to cyclopean heads of more than 2 meters high. This series reveals how Davies handles the scale and texture devices with technical ease. His work can be related to other contemporary figurative painters and sculptors who deal with the representation of man Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti, Edward Kienholz, George Segal, Duane Hanson and in a closer context to Antonio López, among others- Davies still has a singular place in the British sculpture because of his personal vision of the human representation. Davies’s sculptural work concentrates on the human figure, although he has also worked intensely in the field of drawing. In 1970 he won a Sainsbury Award, and his sculptures and drawings have been included in numerous group exhibitions in Europe and the United States. He had a major solo exhibition was at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester in 1996. He currently lives and works in London. See less