Dimensions: object: 180 x 90 x 110 mm, 3.2 kg
Copyright: © Geoffrey Clarke | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Geoffrey Clarke’s sculpture, "Head," housed here at the Tate. It's so striking! The rough, dark metal and simplified features give it an almost archaic feel. How do you interpret its symbolic language? Curator: Notice how Clarke uses crude forms reminiscent of ancient masks and totems. The exaggerated features—those protruding "eyes" and the blade-like face—evoke power and perhaps a sense of ritual. What cultural memories do these forms ignite for you? Editor: I see echoes of tribal art, maybe a connection to primal human experiences. Curator: Precisely. Clarke taps into a deep well of shared visual history. This sculpture, seemingly simple, resonates with the enduring human fascination with representation and identity. The base itself – rock – anchors us to something timeless. Editor: I hadn't thought about the rock base so much. It really does ground the piece in something ancient. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. Each viewing offers a new perspective on the enduring power of symbols.
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This is one of a number of small iron sculptures made by Clarke in the early 1950s. He then had use of a studio with a forge in South Kensington, near the Royal College of Art, where he had studied. Many of the sculptures were of heads or masks. This head, with its sharp features, suggests a continuation of the Surrealist tradition in sculpture and the sophisticated simplification of African carving. In 1985 Clarke described 'Head' as 'one of my favourites' and its technique as 'oxyacetylene cut, heat it, belt it, weld it. Then form weld...Heat, oil (linseed) and with a carburizing flame blacken'. Gallery label, August 2004
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