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> 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 materials--from stone to steel--and has explored a variety of processes--from hand carving to welding. He has also been inspired by an array of sources: from non-Western masks to arrowheads to American abstract art of the 1950s. But all of Turnbull's work is united by an economy of expression: a concern for simple, concisely articulated forms. After working as an illustrator in his native Dundee, Turnbull served in India and Sri Lanka during World War II. On returning, he studied sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In the late 1940s, Turnbull traveled in Europe and settled in Paris for two years where he met several leadings artists including Fernand Léger, Alberto Giacometti, and Constantin Brancusi. Turnbull's work in these years was often linear, such as small, stick-like sculptures in bronze or playful mobile forms inspired by the movement of fish. Turnbull settled in London in 1950. During the next decade, he gained in prominence and, inspired by archaeological and anthropological objects, increasingly created more solid, three-dimensional pieces with overt figural references. Around 1955, he began a series of large totemic forms. He would often scratch or carve into the surfaces of these standing figures. References to the human form gradually disappeared from Turnbull's sculpture and, by the mid 1960s, he was making geometric, linear works comprised of steel beams often painted in bright colors. These purely abstract forms in machine-made steel were far removed from Turnbull's bronze, stone, and wood forms of the 1950s and early 1960s. But in the 1970s, working primarily in clay, he returned to more modest, modeled forms based on the human figure. Since the 1980s, Turnbull has also created large-scale bronze pieces. In addition, though best known for his sculpture, throughout his career, Turnbull has created and exhibited figural and abstract paintings.
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
The J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, California
Acknowledgements for Artist/Maker Biography
Text provided by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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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 materials--from stone to steel--and has explored a variety of processes--from hand carving to welding. He has also been inspired by an array of sources: from non-Western masks to arrowheads to American abstract art of the 1950s. But all of Turnbull's work is united by an economy of expression: a concern for simple, concisely articulated forms. After working as an illustrator in his native Dundee, Turnbull served in India and Sri Lanka during World War II. On returning, he studied sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In the late 1940s, Turnbull traveled in Europe and settled in Paris for two years where he met several leadings artists including Fernand Léger, Alberto Giacometti, and Constantin Brancusi. Turnbull's work in these years was often linear, such as small, stick-like sculptures in bronze or playful mobile forms inspired by the movement of fish. Turnbull settled in London in 1950. During the next decade, he gained in prominence and, inspired by archaeological and anthropological objects, increasingly created more solid, three-dimensional pieces with overt figural references. Around 1955, he began a series of large totemic forms. He would often scratch or carve into the surfaces of these standing figures. References to the human form gradually disappeared from Turnbull's sculpture and, by the mid 1960s, he was making geometric, linear works comprised of steel beams often painted in bright colors. These purely abstract forms in machine-made steel were far removed from Turnbull's bronze, stone, and wood forms of the 1950s and early 1960s. But in the 1970s, working primarily in clay, he returned to more modest, modeled forms based on the human figure. Since the 1980s, Turnbull has also created large-scale bronze pieces. In addition, though best known for his sculpture, throughout his career, Turnbull has created and exhibited figural and abstract paintings.
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