Getty Museum
Large Metamorphic Venus
Creator
William TurnbullArtist · 1922–2012
All works by this person →> I start with an idea or sensation, and finish with an object--an image--which will be kept or destroyed. Between the idea and the image there is a dialogue with the material, the chance occurrence of shapes and surfaces that I leave or reject--an activity, that leaves me something very different from my original idea. > > --William Turnbull William Turnbull has made sculptures in divergent mater
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1983
- Medium
- Bronze, stone
- Culture
- Scottish
- Department
- Sculpture
- Institution
- Getty Museum
The figure of Venus has been radically simplified, transformed into a sting ray- or spade-like form. The artist used the sculpture's flat, broad surface as if a canvas: delicate lines cut into the bronze can be read as arms, eyes, and even a navel. Although the large, three-dimensional form can be viewed from all sides, from directly in front and quite close-up, the viewer can best appreciate the sculpture's rich, brown patina and the gentle cuts into the bronze. William Turnbull's sculpture from the late 1970s and the 1980s evoke both the human form--torsos or mask-like heads--as well as archeological objects like ritual figurines. The shape of this sculpture is both that of a figure and of an ancient arrowhead. The figural character of the work is emphasized further by the artist's choice of title--Venus--the Roman goddess synonymous in the history of art with the female form.
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