Images(2)

Seated Torso

Artist Frank Dobson (London, England, 1886 - 1963)

Date1923

MediumHam Hill stone

ClassificationsSculptures

DimensionsOverall: Height: 20.5 cm, Width: 26 cm, Depth: 21.5 cm
Plinth Size: Height: 107 cm, Width: 30.5 cm, Depth: 30.5 cm

AcquisitionPresented in 1953 by Eric Kennington.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG004606

Keywords

About MeFrank Dobson was inspired to sculpt after seeing several major art exhibitions that were held in London between 1910 and 1912. These exhibitions of Post Impressionist art were organised by the art critic Roger Fry. Here Dobson could see at first hand the primitive qualities of Gauguin's Tahitian scenes and of them he commented: 'These strange symbolic images sent me scuttling along to the British Museum, where I found Negro sculpture, Peruvian Art, Egyptian, Assyrian, Polynesian and - curiously enough later - archaic Greek sculpture'.

In Dobson's 'Seated Torso' Cubist ideas and ideology are clearly complementary to an understanding of primitive art and strong, stylised geometric shapes. In 1922 Dobson met Ossip Zadkine who had been closely associated with the Cubist movement.

Despite its very small physical size, the carving 'Seated Torso' has a monumental quality. The torso and limbs are flattened towards sharp-edged planes to conjure up an almost abstract arrangement complemented by the coarse texture of Kentish Ham-hill stone.