Iris

Artist Gavin Scobie (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1940 - 2012)

Date1976

Mediumaluminium

ClassificationsSculptures

DimensionsOverall: Height: 243.8 cm, Width: 202 cm

AcquisitionThe Scottish Arts Council Bequest, 1997.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG013661

Keywords

Abstract

About MeIn 1973 Scobie won an award from the Century Aluminium Company to work for six months at their plant in Sanquhar, near Dumfries and later to use their product - pre-fabricated aluminium tubes. 'Iris' was the first large-scale welded aluminium piece completed by Scobie and is the height of a human body. The diagonals could represent limbs, but they are not placed there with specific intention, but to form a balanced and integral composition.

Some of Scobie's inspirartion comes from the work of Auguste Rodin, an artist whom Scobie admires, because of his ability to combine a depiction of the human form with his own imaginative and free interpretation of the figure. Scobie's 'Iris' shares the same contorted position and echoes the strange sense of precarious balance that Rodin achieves in 'Iris - Messenger of the Gods.' (Musee Rodin, Paris.)
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Much of Scobie's pioneering modern Scottish sculpture is derived from human figures. This piece shows some of the same contorted positions and imbalance of Rodin's Iris.