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Welded Brass

Circa 1964

Provenance
The Estate of Marie Walker Last

Exhibited
Hamilton Galleries London – Anthea Alley Sculpture and Paintings March 24 – April 11, 1964 No 4
Arnolfini Gallery Bristol – Joint Exhibition October 2 – October 28, 1964 No 16


Anthea Alley 1927 – 1993
Born in Malaya, Anthea Oswell, married twice to Roland
Alley (Keeper of the Tate Modern collection 1965 – 85),
arrived in London in 1944 after a short while as refugee
in Australia. As a painter she studied at the Chelsea
College of Art and the Royal College of Art, receiving
the John Moors Painting Prize in 1961. It was though for
her sculpture that she became better known, starting
in 1957 modeling birds and other animals (especially
cats), though she turned quickly to abstraction, working
predominantly in metal from 1959 after she had taught
herself to weld. │ The work here cannot as yet be
formally identified, however, the style, size and material,
point to a piece known as ‘Tiered Form III’ exhibited
at the Hamilton Galleries, London in 1964. Alley had
by this time been working for a couple of years on
creating sculpture from the discarded machine stamped
metal negatives of some product or other (scrap). She
generally created her sculpture using multiples (for a
visual consistency) of the same shaped discarded metal
piece (here it is brass), commenting that her work was
‘made in sections, dividing up air into slices, light enough
to make the air round them seem solid, or heavy and
stabile…’. This work to me is reminiscent of the better
modular architecture of the time. │ Though it ‘was not
her character to push herself forward’ Alley continued
to exhibit throughout the 60s and 70s, never ceasing
to improvise and explore unusual media (including her
later use of sand, no doubt inspired by her adventurous
travels in the deserts of Egypt and beyond). Her work
is represented in several public collections including:
The Arts Council, The Tate and the Contemporary Art
Society. Alley also taught for several years at
Bath Academy, Corsham.