Lynn Chadwick: Sculptural Revelations

“The Chadwick Collection is a source of pride to us and in sharing this accomplished artist’s work with a larger audience we hope to further establish his place in the historical context of 20th century sculpture and to provide an introduction of this contemporary artform to a new generation of museum visitors.”

– Lisa Tremper Barnes, Director, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College

“The exhibition fully illustrates Chadwick’s sculptural progression, beginning with his earlier, more stoic and monolithic figures of the ’50s and ’60s to later pieces which explore the dynamic possibilities of motion.”

– Tim Higgins, The Morning Call

Winner of the International Sculpture Prize at the 1956 Venice Biennale, Lynn Chadwick achieved international fame for his dynamic sculptural visions, which combine monumental steel and bronze with finely textured surfaces of Stolit or chased metal. Chadwick’s abstract human figures, which eerily evoke brutalist architecture made flesh, are at once imposing and approachable, fantastical yet tactile. Visitors enjoy interacting with them, stroking their curves and angular folds and caressing their elaborate textures.

A self-trained artist whose only formal instruction was in architectural drawing, Chadwick transferred his skills as a draftsman to his sculptural method, infusing his monumental works with a unique plasticity and power. His discovery of the medium of Stolit (an industrial compound of gypsum and iron filings whose surface can be chased after setting) was an artistic breakthrough that allowed him to sculpt on a massive scale while combining abstraction with the tactile properties and shapes of organic forms.

A tireless innovator who constantly expanded his repertoire of materials, styles, and techniques, Lynn Chadwick was still receiving commissions well into his eighties, in both the United States and Europe. This successful outdoor exhibition of larger-than-life-size bronzes traveled to museum gardens and college campuses in Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, before returning to the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum.

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