Nidor 1980

CLEMENT MEADMORE (1929-2005)

Nidor 1980

bronze
48.0 x 68.0 x 20.0 cm
signed, dated and numbered to base: Meadmore 1980 1/6
inscribed to base: I-X

edition: 1/6

Provenance:
Private collection, United States of America
Acquired from the above, private collection, Melbourne

Reference:
Gibson, E., The Sculpture of Clement Meadmore, Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1994, p.102 (illus., another example)
De Groen, G., 'Playing with Blocks: Conversation between Geoffrey De Groen and Clement Meadmore, New York - An Excerpt,' Art & Australia, vol.18, no.4, 1981, p.351 (illus., another example)

EXHIBITED IN MELBOURNE

Estimate: $80000 - 120000

Stylistically, Meadmore’s works fuse elements of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Their effect is one of fluid immediacy, as of a signature … What is less apparent – invisible, actually – but just as important, is the central paradox of their creation.  Sculpture that appears spontaneously generated is instead the product of protracted labour … Meadmore’s is an approach that has, over a career of some forty years, yielded sculpture of uncommon force and feeling.¹

Born in Melbourne in 1929, Clement Meadmore became one of the most accomplished sculptors of his generation, achieving commercial and critical success in Australia and the United States, where he lived from 1963 until his death in 2005.  

Meadmore’s bronze, steel and aluminium sculptures are marked by their elegance and purity of form, coupled with a robust physicality. He creates objects of remarkable integrity, which provoke visual interest from any vantage point, and on any scale – from small maquettes to monumental works of public sculpture.  

In an interview with Geoffrey De Groen for Art & Australia in 1981, Meadmore likened his sculptural practice to ‘playing with blocks.’² The artist described how he would experiment with moulded segments of polyester to create something novel and compelling, worthy of rendering in metal: ‘You just keep on putting them together until something … takes on a quality.  It’s a matter of something happening that goes beyond geometry, even though it is still basically geometric.’³ 

Nidor 1980 is a consummate example of what Eric Gibson describes as Meadmore’s ‘branching sculptures’ of the 1980s.⁴ As illustrated by the present work, these typically consisted of a single sculptural form which would be ‘split’ across multiple planes. The stark, rectilinear structure of Nidor is counterbalanced by an underlying fluidity; bearing some resemblance to the severed legs of a figure in motion. The sculpture’s uppermost edge appears delicately poised, held at a broad obtuse. It is an object of improbable, yet unmistakeable beauty.       

Footnotes:

1. Gibson, E., The Sculpture of Clement Meadmore, Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1994, p.9
2. Clement Meadmore, quoted in De Groen, G., ‘Playing with Blocks: Conversation between Geoffrey De Groen and Clement Meadmore, New York - An Excerpt,’ 
Art & Australia, vol.18, no.4, 1981, p.349
3. Ibid.
4. Gibson, E., op. cit., p.112 

Catherine Baxendale

• 

  Cameron Menzies, Chairman & Head of Private Sales

  cmenzies@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 466 636 142 

• 

  John Keats, Chief Executive Officer

  jkeats@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 403 159 785

• 

  Catherine Baxendale, Senior Art Specialist

  cbaxendale@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 423 067 180

• 

  Asta Cameron, Art Specialist

  acameron@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 400 914 088

• 

  Clementine Retallack, Art Specialist

  cretallack@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 478 493 026