Chadwick

Lynn Chadwick achieved international recognition in 1956 when he won the First Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale. At that time, Chadwick was simply one of the new generation of talented English sculptors; now he is widely acknowledged as the successor to Henry Moore. Chadwick was born in 1914 and began his working life as an architectural draftsman. His later work as a furniture and textile designer led him to sculpture, and he developed an original sculptural technique and a personal vocabulary of fabulous beasts, totemic forms and majestic double figures. For the last thirty years, Chadwick has lived at Lypiatt Manor, deep in the heart of Gloucestershire, keeping his distance from the art world. Despite his use of the human figure, he describes his work as abstract; beyond this he is reluctant to analyze its deeper meaning. Director Barrie Gavin spent some days watching Chadwick at work on a new project, two figures ascending and descending a staircase. By following the process of drawing, the construction of the armature (the metal skeleton used to support the clay or wax during the making of a sculpture), to the foundry and finished piece, this film gives an insight into the artist's physical and mental approach to his work.

For more information see section 25