Lynn Chadwick is one of the most eminent British sculptors of the 20th century, and an important addition to any modern art collection. Chadwick first came to prominence in 1952 when he was included in the British Council’s New Aspects of British Sculpture exhibition for the XXVI Venice Biennale alongside Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Henry Moore and Eduardo Paolozzi. The following year he was one of twelve semi-finalists for the Unknown Political Prisoner International Sculpture Competition and at the 1956 Venice Biennale he won the International Sculpture Prize, beating Giacometti.
Pangolin London has a particularly unique relationship with Lynn Chadwick which dates back to 1983 when owners Rungwe Kingdon and Claude Koenig were appointed his founders and assistants. They went on to set up their own foundry, Pangolin Editions, which is now the largest in Europe and which Pangolin London are directly affiliated to. Pangolin London feel extremely privileged to have such direct insight into the mind of the artist, and the intricate process of casting Lynn Chadwick’s sculptures into bronze.
Unlike Hepworth and Moore with their dedication to ‘truth to materials’, Chadwick reversed the process and used construction. He was one of the first sculptors to explore welding, making up linear armature or a skeleton onto which he applied a skin, building up the surface to a solid form. What stands Chadwick’s sculpture apart from the rest is their sculptural ‘attitude’ which he skilfully used to express a particular stance and the relationship of one mass to another whilst also concentrating on precision of line, crispness of texture and subtlety of colour.
