Lot 12

Item in good condition. Work is structually stable with no faults to report.
The limestone coating is slightly wearing in areas, particularly in the upper panel in centre, exposing a corrosive-like colour on the surface (presenting in pin-head sized specks).


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Private collection, Melbourne
Thence by descent

Sculpture, Australian Galleries, Sydney, 8 April - 1 May 1997, cat. no. 3

From her arrival in Australia in 1950, Inge King AM was one of Australia's most dynamic and revered sculptors. She was a pivotal part of the Centre 5 group, founded in 1961, whose aim was to increase public awareness of sculpture within Australia. The group included Julius Kane, Lenton Parr, Vincas Jomantas, Clifford Last and Norma Redpath.
By the 1990s, Inge King was one of Australia's most recognised sculptors, with decades of exhibition history and major public commissions already under her belt. But, it was this particular decade that saw a return to figuration and the processes of collage in her work. The technique she used, largely the assemblage of abstract forms in steel or bronze, was in some ways a return to her earlier 1940s and 1960s work.
This new direction for Inge stemmed from a major commission she was awarded for a Melbourne office foyer. The work, titled Joie de vivre, was constructed from a series of flat abstract planes, originally created in fibreboard and then each plane cast into bronze. Each plane was then assembled and fixed with a welder, and finally the surface coloured and patinated. Inge followed this method throughout the next decade, where her sculptures took on the forms of gods, angels, and celestial beings. This new subject matter "extends the trend begun with the totemic figures of the 1980s and has much significance for the large body of works involving rings created throughout the 2000s" (Sasha Grishin).
Whilst her angels display a sense of movement, Inge's gods exhibit a quiet solemnity and monumentality. Her representation of Helios 1992, the god of the sun, stands firmly with large semi-circular discs held high in glory, facing upwards to the light resembling both the sun's shape and the outline of wings. Similarly, Inge's Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, exhibits a strong central line standing at just over one metre in height. Representations of Venus in history centre on fertility and femininity, often depicting her wearing a crown and in nude form. In Inge's sculpture here we see Venus standing strong and tall, her womanly shape possibly noted through the circular breasts before her crown-shaped head with a regal bearing. She is strong, imposing, alluring and powerful much like Venus herself.

Olivia Fuller, Head of Art