William Turnbull: Horses - Development of a Theme

22 Jun — 20 Jul 2001

Waddington Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition of sculptures and paintings by William Turnbull. On show will be a selection of bronze Horse sculptures, dating from 1946 to 2000. Beside these will be other sculptures and paintings that have not been previously exhibited.

Turnbull has consistently re-worked the theme of Horse throughout his career, in his own words: 'It is very interesting to see the possibility of enormous variation. It is not necessary to take a new theme, but to transpose something.' Horse, 1946 was one of Turnbull's first sculptures. Other sculptures such as Metamorphic Venus 3, 1982 point to Turnbull's concern with reducing a form to its essence, 'I respond to sculpture which is very holistic, very simple, and acts from a core outwards'.

In the paintings Turnbull's use of colour is pared down and many of the paintings exhibited are monochrome. The surfaces of these paintings are defined by a ground of colour and textured with all-over brush and palette knife marks.

Born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1922, Turnbull joined the Royal Air Force in 1941, serving as a pilot during the Second World War. Between 1946 and 1948 he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and then spent two years living in Paris, where he met Brancusi and Giacometti. In 1950, he returned to London, where he still lives, and his first one-man exhibition was held at the Hanover Gallery, London, in the same year. He represented Britain in a group exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1952 and has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions both in Britain and internationally. In 1973, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Tate Gallery, London, and in 1982 he took part in 'British Sculpture in the Twentieth century' at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. In 1995-6, he had a retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Turnbull's last exhibition at Waddington Galleries was in 1998. His work is held in public collections worldwide.