ROSEMARY MADIGAN, SCULPTOR
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Until 22 May 2011
This small exhibition is an indicator that Madigan is taking her place among the great Australian artists. Focusing mainly on her work Torso - its intimate nature suits her autonomous career away from the mainstream.
(Image: Rosemary Madigan Torso 1986, Art Gallery of NSW, purchased 1986 © Rosemary Madigan, Courtesy of Art Gallery of NSW)
Her sculpture might contest anyone’s view that this is just another female nude in a gallery – her challenge is that the nude is still relevant to contemporary art.
There are many unusual and mysterious elements surrounding Torso. Predestination is a subtle but recurrent theme. Madigan decided at twelve years old that she wanted to be a sculptor. She doesn’t know why.
An appreciation of stone might be in her blood –– her father was a geologist and explorer – in fact he took part in The Douglas Mawson Antarctic Expedition of 1912 – and her grandfather was a gem merchant.
Like a mythical sculptor freeing his subject from suspended incarceration, Madigan’s practice is direct – without models or sketches the material is her guide. Her preoccupation with the female form is another unplanned occurrence.
Trips to India and Europe have influenced her – also Michelangelo’s reliefs. She is consumed by the purity of 3-dimensional form.
The negative space and material qualities – more unique to the fields of sculpture and architecture – contribute to the strong impact of this nude. Madigan aims for a stillness which after a time will reveal the work’s inherent energy to us.
Madigan’s Torso is different from smooth limbless ancient sculpture like the Belvedere Torso. She is not concerned with realism, or greatly with the surface. Her approach is influenced by British 20th century sculpture and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in particular – and the modern search away from man’s self imagery - with greater feeling given to materials.
As if using the pelvis and ribs to create a hidden internal Minimalist structure she searches for reduction and a vitality that is revealed at the surface. There is something perfect and imperfect about Torso that creates balance. Symmetry doesn’t exist and a skilled, almost reckless handling of the human shape positions a breast further back than the ribs jutting beneath. The pose is exhibitionist, and the athleticism strongly grounded. Strangely it is demure and timeless also. The restless surface seems to belie a muscular layer even though this isn’t where Madigan’s interest lies. I almost believe that if I grasped the waist I could feel it – solid and real.
When she won the 1986 Wynne Prize it was the first time a sculptor had won the prize in thirty-three years.
Her independent style leads me to the biggest mystery concerning Torso. Romanesque sculpture is also a strong influence in her work. Often the architecture imposes limitations onto the sculpture – tightly contained and shallow, expanding out of its limited space.
Madigan’s Torso is a completely free-standing sculpture but the back of the work is flattened. This might be a limitation imposed by the material itself. Whether this is serendipitous or a deliberate decision by the sculptor – you can’t help but ask - what unseen force is imposing and encroaching from the rear on this sandstone nude? What restricts this elevation is just a part of the engagement her sculpture seems to ask of the viewer.
END
Images courtesy of the artist and The Art Gallery of NSW.
Art is the means by which life reflects on, transforms and indeed creates its values; human life without it would not properly be human at all.
Antony Gormley