Dragonfly (1951)

Lynn Chadwick

iron

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Classification:

Sculpture

Materials:

Iron

Dimensions:

277 x 106 x 26 cm

Accession Number:

N06035

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1952

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Committee

Ownership history:

Purchased from Gimpel Fils, London by the Contemporary Art Society, 1952; presented to the Tate Gallery, 1952

Relationship:

Gimpel Fils Ltd, London Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Subject:

Insects, Movement, Flying

Dragonfly (1951) belongs to a series of mobiles which Lynn Chadwick began to experiment with in 1947, and which culminated in the complex structures of 1950–1, notably the iron and copper Fisheater commissioned by the Arts Council in 1951. It was made as a model for a large work to be presented by the Contemporary Art Society, but the Tate Trustees decided to accept it in its reduced form. It is made up of a network of welded iron rods, suggesting the body’s structure, with the suspended, fish-like elements counterbalanced by its weighted tail. The result is a finely balanced work that can rotate so that its movement, as much as its form, suggests the predatory prowling of an insect.

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