COLOUR

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COLOUR

The history of sculpture might through the modern lens seem relatively devoid of colour, yet studies have demonstrated that much sculpture from ancient Greece and elsewhere would have been painted despite the bleached and pure look of bare marble that pervades through the Renaissance and beyond.  Applied Colour would have been painted on to heighten proximity to reality, with coloured stones, glass and other materials used for touches of integral colour.

The invention of new materials through the 20th Century expanded possibilities to embed colour in resins, rubbers and fibreglass alongside sophisticated paint finishes and metal treatments. Plastic thermo-coating is a good example of how a technique can open additional avenues of exploration for sculptors, as we will see with the first of the artists in this year’s show at Burghley.

In the curvilinear sculptures of Jim Unsworth there is a twin application of colour. Initially, a plastic coating is baked on to seal the raw steel in a uniform coat of colour. Thereafter, a more painterly application of industrial gloss paints follows, using varying colours to compliment and contrast the base colour. These are dabbed, dripped and brushed on in a limited pallet of two to four additional colours. In the case of First Circle, Dawn Unsworth plays pale khaki and pastel lemon off against the black undercoat on the swirling eddies of circular steel. Other sculptures feature a greater range of tones as for example in Pink Finish. Here, the yellow base is overpainted with lemon, salmon pink, electric blue and touches of black. 

Unsworth is also exhibiting several upright sculptures, the smaller A Smidgen of Orange and the tall Starry Night. The smaller sculpture is much more prominent against nature’s backdrop and the pink of the architectural lookout it sits within, due to its yellow, orange and white colouration. Whereas its taller companion is more muted with a deep navy blue and lighter khaki sitting atop a black base layer. These painterly mixings of the colours with the structurally transparent nature of the wound circular sculptures or the caged figure-like works means that the sculptures’ precise geometry is difficult to discern. An ambiguity further heightened when bathed in sunshine.

Diane Maclean is showing two sculptures, each exhibiting a different kind of applied colour. Of the two, Gothic might be considered the more traditional, its plasma cut steel components have been painted in a bright signal red. These chunky curvilinear elements providing a complementary colour pairing to the garden’s greens. In contrast, the colouration of Preen is created by a treatment upon the stainless steel of its feathers. This essentially means it shifts between a colour range of turquoise, through navy to a deep red-tinged purple according to the relative position of the viewer. This brings the sculpture to life because its colour is not fixed when viewed, unless the viewer stands completely still. Even then, due to the relative angles of the ‘feather’ petals, the sculpture never appears to be a single tone.

The colouration of another sculpture in the show is also activated by movement, but this time by the literal motion of the piece itself. As the title suggests, Spinning Sculpture by Roger Clarke, can be spun. which begins to blur the geometric sharpness of the coloured shapes on its surface. During the acceleration of getting it going and the deceleration when it runs out of steam, the eye can more easily pick out the differently coloured shapes. But once at full speed, its rotation means a blurring array of colours emerge that continually shift into one another in the mind’s eye.

Clarke’s other sculptures, PNAACTLLIIC and PNAQPCS, might, depending on your thinking, be considered to have no colour given they are entirely white. Instead, their neutrality provides a contrast to the splashes of colour provided by the wildflowers and foliage that surround them. These sculptures have a bulbous lop-sided charm due to the tilting arrangement of their spherical construction. A jaunty but geometrically precise insertion within the gardens.

Whilst the floral display is not sculptural in Roger Clarke’s white sculptures, it becomes actual in Bud, Meadow Flowers and Bud, Exotic Flowers by Ruth Molliert. Here, in contrast to expectation, the main activity is slightly obscured within the polished bud structures. The internal surfaces contain a floral display accompanied by butterflies and other insects. In these sculptures colour also comes through processes of metal treatment, in particular, the coloured anodising of aluminium motifs. The industrial coating delivers bold primary colours complemented by gold and silver.

The next two sculptors make reference to sculpture’s classic technique of bronze casting, applying the turquoise patination synonymous with coper oxide. Brendon Murless’s Serenity is a particularly striking example, with a bold zingy green hue, with undertows of blue welling up in places to complete the turquoise effect. Originally carved directly from a trunk, parts of the tree’s natural branch growth are transformed into features of the head. The sculptor has been careful to preserve other aspects, such as the grain of the wood and to use this to emphasise aspects of portraiture. As the title suggests, this is a portrait in a state of meditative repose. A quality enhanced by the colour balance of calming blues and greens.

Tracey Ward’s use of patination in Mi-Pod is a little less unified, given on closer inspection the surface has an array of colours seemingly applied through action painting. Whilst the overall effect is a deep turquoise, this is built up by a surface of dots of lighter blue, gold, bronze and green. It gives the sculpture a shimmering feel, and perhaps this is intended to reflect the nautical home of the dolphins. A dynamically multi-object work in which being underwater is implied by how the animals appear partially submerged below ground. The sleek forms are given further reality by the grouping and implied motion.

The work of Sheila Vollmer entails a subtle interplay of transparent triangular planes of acrylic and right-angled steels painted blue and grey. The latter are opaque and block sight, whereas the acrylic triangles can be seen through with the exception of their edges which effectively appear to light up. Vollmer’s use of ‘live-edge’ acrylic is the cause and these electric-blue luminous lines play off against the sky blue and graphite grey steels. All this makes for a visually complex arrangement of colour and form in her sculptures. In Blue Lift I & II the triangles of blue acrylic challenge the vertical order, whereas they add a sense of cohesion to the swirling diagonals of Bolt II.

The colour in Pete Rogers literally surfs in on a wave, a vibrant blue wave of richly transparent PVC in Surfing the Blue. Intriguingly, this sculpture casts a blue halo onto the surrounding ground which moves with the sun to further animate the sense of coastal motion. The presence of colour in Rogers’ second sculpture is more subtle and occasional. The Sun Catcher is predominantly stainless steel and heat treatment on the surface of the sunflower provides the colour, along with a tiny touch of yellow in the mouse’s kite. Common to many of Rogers’ sculpture is the presence of the aforementioned mouse, a trait shared by the English furniture maker Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson who invariably carved one into his oak pieces. In Rogers’ work the rodent has been anthropomorphised into an action figure.

Complementary colours is a strange name for the pairs of colours that sit in opposition to one another on the colour wheel. With red and green a particularly striking contrast. This is what Paul Millhouse-Smith takes advantage of with his placement of his red iron oxide hand I Can See Your Outline. This is an unusual sculpture given its flatness, size and expansive contact with the ground. This aligns the sculpture to the land art of the past, and will, when removed have bleached the grass underneath to temporarily mark the earth.

Overall, the exhibition offers opportunities to witness contemporary usage of colour in sculpture, be that applied to a surface or inherent within a material.  To see how colour can inform and shape our perception of geometry; how colouration can be in a state of flux; and in some cases, even how colour can spread beyond the work itself.

Michael Shaw                                                    

Curator