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Chrome Plated Steel
Inscribed ‘PYE 1969 4/6’
Date 1969
Edition No 4 of 6

Note: Redfern Catalogue misprinted as an edition of 4

PROVENANCE
The Estate of Mr Mark Zulli

Exhibited
Redfern Gallery – William Pye New

William Pye b. 1938
After completing National Service in 1958, William
studied at the Wimbledon School of Art going on to
specialise in Sculpture under Bernard Meadows at the
Royal College of Art. He taught at the Central School
of Art and Design 1965 – 1970 and Goldsmiths College
1970 – 1975, and was visiting Professor at California
State University in 1976 before concentrating on largescale
public and private commissions. │ The work here
‘Hambalt’, named after the road in Clapham where
William lived and worked at the time, is an editioned
maquette for a much larger version (3.35 m) now on a
mountainside at Cairnwell (Trio), Glenshee in Scotland.
Exhibited at his second one man show at the Redfern
Gallery in 1969, this piece (the first in his tripod series)
is one of a series of tubular chrome plated steel works
which, in part, explored William’s interest in the temple
architecture of ancient Greece. Confining himself to
a ‘restricted field of variable units’ the ‘Birds Mouth’
and the ‘Swept Tee’ being two, William was intrigued
by the ‘transforming and complicating effect’ of fitting
these elements together. There was also a wish for the
‘effort’ of making to be disguised for ‘objects to appear
effortless in their being’, the steel to have a ‘seductive
sleekness’ and a ‘sinuousness and sensuality that was at
odds with this intractable material’. ‘Hambalts’ reflective
surface has an intended ‘organic quality, a coming alive’
enabling a response to any given environment in which
the work is placed. For me the fluidity of the work is a
precursor to William’s later use of water as a sculptural
element. │ William Pye is an elected Fellow of the Royal
Society of British Sculptors and an Honorary Fellow of
RIBA. A selection of works; Zemran, Southbank Centre
1971, Slipstream and Jetstream, Gatwick Airport 1987,
The Font, Salisbury Cathedral 2008, Alchemilla,
All-England Club, Wimbledon 2016.