WORK OF THE WEEK : Kenneth Martin, ‘Construction’, 1972

Kenneth Martin 1905 - 1984
Construction, 1972
Painted iron and steel
600 x 122 x 122 cm
15 x 4 x 4 ft.

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Kenneth Martin, 'Construction', 1972, sited at Roche Court Sculpture Park.

Kenneth Martin's Construction was commissioned by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation in 1972, for the City Sculpture Project – a nationwide scheme to place large-scale public sculpture in England’s industrial cities.

Kenneth Martin created Construction for Sheffield, the city of his birth and had it fabricated in one of its world-renowned steel works. At the end of City Sculpture Project, the work was relocated to outside the Commonwealth Institute in London and was also exhibited in Battersea Park for the Silver Jubilee of Contemporary British Sculpture, 1977.

Kenneth Martin (1905-1984) was a celebrated painter and sculptor, noted as a leading figure in the Constructivist movement in Great Britain. He has experimented with the concepts of order, permutation and chance, elements which are all apparent in this abstract arrangement of Construction's nineteen blocks and plates. Often beginning with 2-dimensional mathematical drawings, Martin said that the exploitation of form in all its dimensions is necessary to create a work of art. Thus, Construction, photographed here at Roche Court, exemplifies Martin’s exploration of the possibilities of simple rhythms created in space, delivered on an immense scale.

Martin’s work is held in international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York;
the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; the British Museum and Arts Council of Great Britain . He was awarded an OBE in 1971, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art in 1976.

A full catalogue for this work, written by Dr Susan Tebby, a leading scholar on British Constructivism, and who was also Kenneth Martin’s studio assistant at the time of his making of Construction - Click below to view.