Lot 170: George Fullard (1923-1973)

George Fullard (1923-1973)
Glancing Woman
bronze
13 in. (33 cm.) high
Conceived in 1956 as a unique work. Accompanied with the original receipt from the Woodstock Gallery, 1958.

London, South London Art Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture & C. by Eight Artists: Looking at People, April - May 1957, no. 82, as 'Peering Woman (a Mask)'.
Moscow, Pushkin Museum, Looking at People, 8 English Artists, 1957, catalogue not traced.
London, Woodstock Gallery, Sculpture, September 1958, no. 2, as 'Female Head'.
London, Arts Council, Serpentine Gallery, George Fullard: Exhibition of Sculpture, July - August 1974, no. 4: this exhibition travelled to Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, September - October 1974.

G. Whiteley, The Sculpture of George Fullard, London, 1998, p. 53, pl. 50 and p. 131, cat. no. 22, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, George Fullard: Exhibition of Sculpture, Serpentine Gallery, 1974, p. 13, no. 4, illustrated.

Purchased by Mr. Adcock from the 1958 exhibition and by descent.

In 1958 John Berger wrote: 'I want to say something about the 'expressionist' sculptures of George Fullard (Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock Street, Mayfair)... Fullard is the best young (under 40) sculptor whom I know in this country. I shall not justify that opinion today. In twenty years time it will be easier. Now it is more necessary to look at the works than to defend comparisons.
I would only respectfully ask the Tate to consider acquiring the small bronze head of a girl which is in this show (refering to the present work in the 1958 exhibition).
In the Tate (?) head, the sidelong glance of the eyes and the quiveringly attentive mouth are not variable factors but intrinsic ones, the overall form of the whole face (and incidentally, the problem of how to end a portrait neck is here magnificently solved) holds its own expresssion just as the form of a full sail holds the wind.
In other words, for Fullard every work grows from a single seed. There is, I suspect very little constructive or cerebral calculation in his work. Instead there are two intuitive compulsions which, opposing each other, generate a tension similar to that of cerebral thought - there is his intuitive recollection and desire for the image he has seen already in life, and there is his intuitive respect for the narrow limits and thus for the dignity of his sculptural language (J. Berger, New Statesman, 6 September 1958, pp. 276-277).