Biography: Lynn Chadwick

Lynn Chadwick was a leading figure among the prominent generation of 20th-century British sculptors that included the slightly older Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. His international breakthrough came in 1956, when Chadwick won the International Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale. He came from an architecture background and was self-taught as an artist, an expert welder who liked technical experimentation. His early work included ambitious suspended mobiles. Even Chadwick’s most abstract sculptures typically referenced in some fashion animal and human shapes. His forms often consisted of bulky, weighty bodies with rough metal surfaces on thin legs. Eventually, Chadwick added polished surfaces, including stainless steel, and seated or reclining figures to his repertoire. Like Moore and many other sculptors, Chadwick also produced two-dimensional art, especially lithography. Chadwick’s work is in major public collections worldwide, including Paris’ Rodin Museum and Centre Pompidou, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and London’s Tate Gallery.