Sculpture Stories
I have been researching sculptures in public spaces around the city of Adelaide, through my urban sketching practice and archival research. I enjoy these sculptures and they continue to inspire my own art practice .
I am most interested in the modernist period of sculpture in the latter half of last century (1960's to 1990's) when large abstract forms started to appear on Adelaide streets. Attached is a list of 42 sculptures installed in Adelaide CBD in this period, all still standing today. I am gradually working through this list to compile more information. Below are links to a summary of my research on a few of the sculptures...
Immortal Warrior by Norma Redpath (1963)
Sculpture No. 714 by Robert Klippel (1990)
Untitled by Margel Hinder (1972)
Tetrahydrons, by Bert Flugelman (1974)
These sculptures were made during a period of significant social change. In each case the sculptures were installed as part of a major public building project, thereby linking the art as a change agent alongside urban development. The abstract forms of these sculptures would have been completely foreign at the time and were probably incomprehensible to many people - perhaps they still are. The public value of these sculptures is in their freedom of individual expression as art works - unconstrained by design specifications. These art works engage curiousity, and can now be enjoyed as modernist heritage artefacts in the evolving city scape.