British

Biography:

An English artist, primarily a sculptor, Robert Adams studied at Northampton School of Art from 1933 to 1944. His first one-man show of sculpture was held in 1947 at Gimpel Fils Gallery, London. His early sculpture showed influences of Henry Moore, however following the Gimpel show he visited Paris, becoming interested in Brancusi and Julio Gonzalez whose influences led to a greater simplicity of form in his work. In 1950 he received a Rockefeller award from the institute of International Education to visit the USA.

Robert Adams encountered Victor Pasmore and the London Group of artists which included Adrian Heath, Anthony Hill, Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin as a result of his teaching post at the Central School of Art & Design in London in 1949. He held this post until 1960 and between 1951-56, exhibited with these artists. This is why he was included in our highly acclaimed Constructivist exhibition Towards a Rational Aesthetic which was held in November 2007.

Adams did not employ the mathematical formulae which the British Constructivist group promoted but he was in support of the architectonic notion of linking art and architecture. By the 1950s his sculpture had evolved gradually towards pure abstract forms, asymmetric balance and a focused awareness of space, as he highlighted in the Nine Abstract Artists exhibition catalogue of 1955: '...non-figurative works...need space around them, both wall space and actual space. One might say they need an environment in which to live.'

Copyright: Lucy Tyler, Osborne Samuel Ltd



Bibliography:

Robert Adams (exh. cat. by A. Hill, London, Gimpel Fils, 1951)
L. Alloway: Nine Abstract Artists (London, 1954), pp. 21-2
Ceri Richards, Robert Adams, Hubert Dalwood: British Pavilion (exh. cat. by J. P. Hodin, Venice Biennale, 1962)
Robert Adams, Retrospective Exhibition (exh. cat. by C. Spencer, London, Camden A. Cent., 1971)
P. Curtis: Modern British Sculpture from the Collection (Liverpool, Tate, 1982)
Robert Adams: Late Bronzes (exh. cat., London, Gimpel Fils, 1988)