WORK OF THE WEEK: Kenneth Martin, Construction, 1972
Kenneth Martin, Construction (1972) commissioned for Sheffield in 1972.
Kenneth Martin
Construction, 1972
Painted iron and steel
600 x 122 x 122 cm
15 x 4 x 4 ft.
Elegant and monumental, Kenneth Martin’s Construction was commissioned by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation in 1972, for the City Sculpture Project. This was a nationwide scheme to place large-scale public sculpture in England’s industrial cities. Created for its site at Arundel Gate, Sheffield, the city of Martin’s birth, Construction was exhibited for 6 months before its relocation outside the Commonwealth Institute in London, and subsequently in Battersea Park for the Silver Jubilee of Contemporary British Sculpture in 1977. Construction exemplifies Martin’s exploration of the possibilities of simple rhythms created in space, delivered on an immense scale. It represents the most monumental aspects of his practice, making it a marvellous addition to both natural and architectural landscapes.
Celebrated painter and sculptor, Kenneth Martin (1905-1984) was a leading figure in the British Constructivist movement. He studied at the Royal College of Art, London, where he met Mary Balmford. The two were married, and her artistic development as Mary Martin was closely related to his own. In the 1930s, Kenneth Martin primarily painted in a naturalistic style, but in the late 1940s, he began to produce his first abstract pictures. Experimenting with concepts of order, permutation and chance, his process often began with 2-dimensional mathematical drawings. Martin said that the exploitation of form in all its dimensions is necessary to create a work of art.
Kenneth Martin, Construction, 1972, sited at Roche Court Sculpture Park.
Kenneth Martin is noted for his large-scale commissions, including Screw Mobile, Victoria Plaza, London, and Fountain, which was made for the International Symposium in Gorinchem, Holland. He was awarded an OBE in 1971, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art in 1976. Today, Martin’s work is held in numerous major international public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan; the British Museum, London; Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands; the Tate Gallery, London and the Arts Council of Great Britain, London. A joint exhibition of the work of Kenneth and Marty Martin was shown at Tate St Ives in 2007, which highlighted his mobiles and his Chance and Order series.
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, is available - Click below to view.
Detail: Kenneth Martin, Construction (1972) sited at Roche Court Sculpture Park.
“Construction is an organised activity. In the method one is the craftsman, in the invention of method and organisation one is the artist.”