Harvard Art Museums > 2007.126: Sprawling Woman Sculpture Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Add to Collection Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Sprawling Woman (Kenneth Armitage) , 2007.126,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 14, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/316433. Identification and Creation Object Number 2007.126 People Kenneth Armitage, British (Leeds 1916 - 2002 London) Title Sprawling Woman Classification Sculpture Work Type sculpture Date 1969 Culture British Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/316433 Physical Descriptions Medium Bronze Dimensions 66.04 cm (26 in) Inscriptions and Marks Signed: Signed with initials, dated 69 and numbered 1/6 inscription: "KA 69" "1/6" on bottom of work Provenance Recorded Ownership History William S. Lieberman, bequest; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2007. State, Edition, Standard Reference Number Edition Ed. 1/6 Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of William S. Lieberman Copyright © Kenneth Armitage Foundation Accession Year 2007 Object Number 2007.126 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Commentary Kenneth Armitage has exhibited worldwide and is recognized as one of the major British sculptors of the twentieth century. He was born in Leeds, Yorkshire and studied at Leeds College of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Armitage's early works were carved in stone, but in the post-war years he began casting in bronze, initially using plaster and later clay modeled on metal armatures. By the 1960s he had begun working with wax, resin and aluminum. He first attracted international attention at the 26th Venice Biennale in 1952 as one of a group of young British sculptors including Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, and Eduardo Paolozzi, who are all represented in the Fogg collection. Armitage's solid, bulky forms articulate strong horizontal and vertical lines through their protruding attenuated limbs. Of Armitage's rendering of the human form, Roland Penrose writes, "The idioms used by him, such as the melting together of two or more bodies, the unison of their movement, the stretching, probing gestures of slender limbs, even the small mushroom-shaped heads that contribute to the monumental scale of the massive body beneath them, all these features characteristic of his work convey a playful affectionate attitude." The horizontal thrust of Figure on Back is complemented by the verticality of Family Group (n.d.), also in the Harvard Art Museum's collection, and there is a direct relationship with the charcoal drawing, Reclining Figure (1957) in the Drawings Department. Publication History Kenneth Armitage, Bodensee-Verlag Amriswil (Zurich, 1960), p. 23 Kenneth Armitage: Life and Work, Lund Humphries (London, 1997), p. 43 Related Works 2007.19 Kenneth Armitage Sprawling Woman Drawings Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
