Tag: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

This bronze is by Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003) and is in the sculpture garden of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. The design was for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and there were six casts made in 1978, of which this is one. Incidentally, if anyone fancies owning this, one came up for auction (number 2 of 6) in 2018 and reached just under £2.6 million against an estimate of £600,000 to £800,000. That seems like a lot of money to me…..

Anyway, I have no idea where the other five bronzes are (or indeed if this is the one which sold in 2018), probably mostly in private collections somewhere around the world and surfacing only for occasional exhibitions. These ones were meant to be removed from the Sainsbury collection at the end of 2019, so will likely be gone soon as they’re only on loan from the collection of Denise Coates CBE (the controversial business leader who made money from her betting business) and Richard Smith.

The figures are quite powerful with their different shaped heads and angular designs.

For some time, and inspired by the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, I became quite engaged with the works of Auguste Rodin. Not just the artworks, but also how French law now allows for twelve casts to be made of original plaster moulds and that means it’s intriguing to see where the various bronzes have ended up.

There’s a similar theme to the works of Henry Moore (1898-1986) and the bronze known as Draped Reclining Woman was designed in 1958. There’s the original cast, known as 0/6, and then six castings were made of this original work and this was undertaken by Hermann Noack.

This bronze, now on display in the sculpture park of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the UEA, was once located in the garden of Sir Robert Sainsbury (1906-2000). He was the son of the founder of the supermarket chain and he also donated a significant art collection to the gallery.

Wikipedia, that bastion of truth, tells me where the other bronzes are.

The Tate Museum (they’ve put it on display at Glyndebourne near Lewes)

Pinakothek der Moderne (a modern art gallery in Munich, which is a city I haven’t visited)

The Staatsgalerie (a gallery in Stuttgart, another city I haven’t visited)

The Norton Simon Museum (this is in Pasadena, a city I’ve visited, but not the museum and they have the 0/6, so the original cast)

The two others are in private collections (so, could be anywhere)