Antiques & Interiors Limited
Brian Knapp
SCULPTURES
Sculpture has been a category of art I was not immediately drawn to, possibly because we never had any in our home and the emphasis in school always seems to be focused on painters, the Group of Seven and house hold names like Rembrandt, Van Gough . The thing about owning and living with 3 Dimensional art, has been described to me as a luxury. Perhaps this is because of the very nature of the art form. To really appreciate many sculptures, you need the space to view them from all angles. That being said, many of the sculptures in my collection are usually viewed from one side, but the option exists to move them around the house from one location to another where they can me seen and appreciated in various settings and a different context. Light space settings all play a part in how we interpret these special expressions of volume, line and space.
WILLIAM HODD ( Bill ) MCELCHERAN 1927-1999
WILLIAM HODD ( Bill ) MCELCHERAN 1927-1999
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, William McElcheran studied at the Ontario College of Art. He studied painting before sculpture, but gravitated to painters who dealt with sculptural forms. When he crossed into the realm of sculpture, European artists such as Giacomo Manzù, Jacques Lipchitz, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Ernst Barlach and Gerhard Marcks attracted him. McElcheran was also interested in old master artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and he loved classicism, which dealt with the heroic, the larger-than-life figure. From 1955 to 1960 he was the chief designer for Bruce Brown and Brisley Architects, during which time he planned and designed 23 churches and university buildings.
He taught sculpture at the Ontario College of Art from 1960 to 1967, and was artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Architecture from 1970 to 1974. In 1973 he established Daedalus Designs, and producing public sculpture in Canada, the United States and Europe. In 1975 he moved to Pietrasanta in Italy for a number of years to be close to a foundry there and artisans skilled in bronze casting. While there, he exhibited in Pietrasanta’s International Sculpture Exhibition in 1977 and 1978.McElcheran is renowned for his volumetric businessman figures cast in bronze. Clothed in their business costume of coat, tie, hat and briefcase, these figures hustle through their busy day, working within the confines of the structures and expectations of society.
McElcheran’s viewpoint is satirical but empathetic – he communicates a sense of nostalgia for these men, who are driven to succeed, to acquire, to conform, to attain power, yet are controlled by their own system.
McElcheran’s sculptures can be seen in many public collections, such as the Toronto Stock Exchange, Dundas Station, Toronto Transit Commission, McMaster University, York University, the University of Toronto, on Wellington Street and at Bay and King Street in Toronto, Odette Sculpture Park in Windsor and Stephen Avenue in Calgary, among others.
Karate Man
Artist: William Hodd McElcheran
Title: Karate Man
Material: Bronze Sculpture
Date : 198
Height 15 ins; 38 cms
Edition 1/9
Flat Out
Artist: William Hodd McElcheran
Title: Flat Out
Material: Bronze Sculpture
Date : 1989
Height 10 ins; 25 cms
Edition 1/6
Determined
William McElcheran was trained in sculpture at the Ontario College of Art, and in 1973 opened Daedalus Designs, which specialised in the integration of sculptures into buildings. Although his depictions of businessmen and women were often satirical, McElcheran clearly had respect and compassion for those caught up in the daily rat-race. In Determined, the generic businessman races through his day, as if he has no other concerns besides reaching his destination quickly and efficiently.
Artist: William Hodd McElcheran
Title: Determined
Material: Bronze Sculpture
Date : 1995
Height : 29.5" X 20" X 10"0 inches
74.9 x 50.8 x 25.4 centimeters initialed, editioned 3/9 and dated 1995
Edition ?/?
AUGUSTIN FILIPOVIC 1931-1998
Gilded Bronze SculptureAugustin Filipovic was born in 1931 and grew up during the 1950s and was inspired by the artistic culture of the time. The 1950s can be said to have been dominated by Abstract Expressionism, a form of painting that prioritised dramatic brushstrokes and expressed ideas about organic nature, spirituality and the sublime. Much of the focus was on the formal techniques of painting, and ideas of action painting were conflated with the political freedom of the United States society as opposed to the strictures nature of the Soviet bloc. Influential artists of the Abstract Expressionist Generation included Jackson Pollock (who innovated his famed drip, splatter and pour painting techniques), Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Adolph Gottlieb. It was a male dominated environment, but necessary reassessment of this period has underlined the contributions of female artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Louise Bourgeois, amongst others.
Attributed to Augustin Filipovic
Abstract Figural Gilded BronzeBronze
Unattributed Art Deco Bronze Falcon or Hawk
A superb period Art Deco bronze sculpture of a falcon, which straddles a single wheel mounted on a yellow block of marble. This exceptional sleek angular powerful bronze dates from the first quarter of the 20th century and epitomizes the timeless quality and appeal of this period of design.
GARY WISEMAN
Drawing inspiration from Greek forms, the romance of the Italian Renaissance, Egyptian steles, and the works of Auguste Rodin and Constantin Brancusi, Gary Weisman creates historically inspired bronze sculptures that possess a contemporary dynamism. Weisman’s primarily nude forms reflect his preoccupation with the human condition and highlight the human body’s impressive capabilities. Weisman was first drawn to sculpture for its ability to reveal itself immediately and simultaneously, like a gestalt. Rare among contemporary sculptors, he performs every step of his art-making process by hand, mixing clay and modeling, doing lost-wax casting in his foundry, and sanding and polishing in his studio. By paying astute attention to negative space, he crafts sculptures whose presences extend beyond their immediate forms and lend their surroundings a multidimensional quality'
Gary Weisman was born in Chicago in 1952. He was educated at the School of the Chicago Art Institute, and Columbia College, Chicago. In 1982, Weisman became a drawing instructor at Manatee College in Sarasota, Florida, and from 1986 until the present, he teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Weisman is the recipient of various awards and commissions, and is represented in collections across the United States.Weisman has participated in group exhibitions since 1987, and from 1989 has had various solo exhibitions.
In Weisman’s sculpture, his intense search for contemporary content seems to continually involve a retrieval of the past. Being figurative, his work confronts the preeminent motif of all historical sculpture. His figures reflect the influence of the canons of Greek design, the romance of the Renaissance and, later, Rodin, as well as the universal sculptural language of Brancusi or Egyptian stelae. Most of all, Weisman’s work continues the timeless preoccupation we have with ourselves, our bodies, and the human condition. In it, he extrapolates the drama that our bodies and beings create, and inspires in the viewer a sense of awe for the heroics we can mentally construct, or physically perform.
It is Weisman’s ability to touch upon a spiritual component that holds such promise for the future for this young sculptor. Spirit is an ingredient that often manifests itself later in an artist’s life, and Weisman’s ability to touch upon it, now, distinguishes his work more than any other factor. Weisman insists on doing each stage of creating a sculpture by himself. As his own modeler, caster, foundryman, and patinist, he is able to exploit the characteristics of each process to enhance the end result he envisions. The fortitude, knowledge, and skill to work in this fashion are rare attributes, today.
Excerpts from “Gary Weisman, Sculpture and Drawing” by Frederick S. Osborne, Director, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts