Public Commemoration and Representation Post-1945: The Sculpture of Ivor Roberts-Jones (1913-1996)

该项目旨在通过对威尔士出生的雕塑家艾弗·罗伯茨-琼斯·拉(艾弗·罗伯茨-琼斯，1913-1996年)的艺术创作进行第一次深入的批判性研究，加深对1945年后英国公共雕塑的理解。在罗伯茨-琼斯的职业生涯中，他在皇家学院内和广大公众中受到了艺术同行的高度尊重，因为他获得了主要的青铜公共委托，如汉普郡福丁布里奇的奥古斯都·约翰纪念碑(1964-67年)，伦敦议会广场的温斯顿·丘吉尔爵士的全身雕像(1970-73年)，以及伦敦议会街陆军元帅斯利姆子爵的全身雕像(1987-1990年)。他的作品经常出现在由艺术委员会支持的各种媒体的著名雕塑展览中，他接受了威尔士国家博物馆超过25次的委托，在四分之一个世纪的时间里制作威尔士著名人物的肖像头像和半身像。此外，他还被证明是一位有影响力的老师：他的学生创作了英国主要的公共雕塑作品，如：J·W·米尔斯的伦敦国家妇女纪念碑(2005)和M·詹宁斯的约翰·贝杰曼爵士的圣潘克拉斯火车站(2007)。尽管他的雕塑成就和遗产，罗伯茨-琼斯的重大贡献后1945年的英国艺术和随之而来的辩论，国家，纪念和公共艺术的目的，得到了令人惊讶的学术关注很少。基于广泛的原始档案研究，包括未出版的艺术家信件、素描、带注释的照片和雕塑模型，该项目将审查在罗伯茨-琼斯去世时广泛传播的观点，即罗伯茨-琼斯创作了1945年后欧洲主要的纪念公共青铜雕塑的一些最令人印象深刻和令人难忘的例子。在威尔士国家博物馆、国家肖像画廊和伦敦泰特美术馆的藏品中，他的肖像和他的公共纪念馆将第一次得到西欧现代主义雕塑传统的适当评估，其中包括马约尔、爱泼斯坦、弗林克、马里尼和贝尔斯基等杰出的从业人员。此外，罗伯茨-琼斯在1960年的《S》和《80年的S》之间用青铜和石膏制作的一系列细微的盲人头像，将与20世纪由Fautrier发展起来的肖像传统以及当代的辩论有关，这些辩论探索失明或部分失明的人如何想象他们的面部：-罗伯茨-琼斯称之为他们的“私人地理”。该项目考察了罗伯茨-琼斯的肖像画和公共纪念工作，涉及当前围绕以下几个问题的辩论：英国性的本质；威尔士民族身份的演变；公共艺术和不列颠帝国历史之间的问题关系(特别是关于他对温斯顿·丘吉尔的想象)，以及他的纪念性人物对形成官方赞助的、所谓的“英雄”标准男性形象的贡献，比如他笔下的二战陆军元帅斯利姆和阿兰布鲁克。罗伯茨-琼斯作为戈德史密斯学院雕塑系主任，也将探讨罗伯茨-琼斯对英国雕塑中代表性趋势未来发展的影响。将通过N.Boonham、E.Milner、J.W.Mills和M.Jennings等当代实践者对艺术家的遗产及其与公共纪念雕塑的持续相关性进行评估。该项目将包括一系列全国性和地区性展览和展示以及附带文本、公开演讲和两次为期一天的会议，最终将在阿伯里斯特怀斯的威尔士国家图书馆展出。通过这种方式，通过媒体报道的最大化，研究将被传播给异常广泛的受众。

This project seeks to enhance understanding of post-1945 public sculpture in Britain through the first in-depth critical study of the artistic production of Welsh-born sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones RA (1913-1996): a founder member, in 1953, of the Society of Portrait Sculptors and a champion of traditional figurative sculptural forms. During his career Roberts-Jones was held in high esteem by his artistic peers, within the Royal Academy and by the public at large, for major public commissions in bronze such as: the Augustus John Memorial at Fordingbridge in Hampshire (1964-67), the full-length figure of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London (1970-73) and the full-length figure of Field Marshal Viscount Slim in Parliament Street, London (1987-1990). His work regularly featured in prominent exhibitions of sculpture embracing a wide variety of media supported by the Arts Council and he received over 25 commissions from the National Museum of Wales to produce portrait heads and busts of prominent Welsh personalities over a quarter of a century. He, furthermore, proved an influential teacher: students of his have produced major UK public sculptures such as: the National Women's Memorial, London by J.W. Mills (2005) and Sir John Betjeman, St. Pancras Railway Station by M. Jennings (2007). In spite of his sculptural achievements and legacy, Roberts-Jones's significant contribution to post-1945 British art and accompanying debates on nation, commemoration, and the purpose of public art, has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Based upon extensive original archival research, including unpublished artist's letters, drawings, annotated photographs and sculpture models, this project will examine the view widely aired at his death that Roberts-Jones produced some of the most impressive and memorable examples of major commemorative public sculpture in bronze in post -1945 Europe. For the first time, his portraiture - in the collections of the National Museum of Wales, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery, London - and his public memorials will be properly assessed within a Western European modernist sculptural tradition that embraces such distinguished practitioners as: Maillol, Epstein, Frink, Marini and Belsky. In addition, the series of subtle heads of blind subjects Roberts-Jones produced in bronze and plaster between the 1960's and '80's, will be related to a 20th Century tradition of portraiture developed by Fautrier as well as to contemporary debates exploring how the unsighted, or partially sighted, imagine their facial appearance: - what Roberts-Jones termed their 'private geographies.' The project examines Roberts-Jones's portraiture and public commemorative work in relation to current debates surrounding: the nature of 'Britishness'; the evolution of Welsh national identity; the problematic relationship between public art and Britain's imperial past (especially with respect to his imagining of Winston Churchill), and the contribution his monumental figuration made to the formulation of an officially sponsored discourse of supposedly 'heroic' normative masculinity such as his figures of WWII Field Marshals Slim and Alanbrooke. The impact Roberts-Jones had on the future development of representational trends within British sculpture, in his capacity as Head of Sculpture at Goldsmith's College, will also be explored. An assessment will be provided of the artist's legacy and his continuing relevance in relation to the public commemorative sculpture through such contemporary practitioners as N. Boonham, E. Milner, J.W. Mills and M. Jennings.The project will include a series of national and regional exhibitions and displays with accompanying texts, public talks and 2 one-day conferences, It will culminate in a display at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Through this means, maximised by media coverage, research will be disseminated to an exceptionally broad audience.