Chronological list of public works

“Gothic Figure is a tall assemblage of flat, welded shapes, cut from scrap steel and articulated with molten metal hardened into a rich texture. King was pleased to use found materials; they were cheap and their various shapes offered endless ideas for composition.”

Dancer steel painted black, height 91.5 cm, collection Newcastle Region Art Gallery. On 2009-08-13 I spoke to Penelope Finnigan at the Newcastle Region Art Gallery www.nag.org.au . They have Dancer and Enigma (39 x 77 x 28 cm, listed as 1983 in IKS, with a photo on page 125). Both works are in storage and only occasionally shown, due to their large collection and very limited exhibition space. Penelope described them:

Dancer is dated 1963, is constructed of painted and welded mild steel plate. It was first exhibited at the Centre 5 exhibition at this Gallery in Sept 1963, and was purchased from the exhibition. It is unsigned and measures 110 x 37.3 cm.Enigma, 1984, was purchased in 1985 with a grant from VAB board of Australia Council. It was exhibited at Realities Gallery (Melbourne) April/May 1985.

The Gallery has sent me a GIF storeroom photo of Dancer. This is the only photo I know of this work. To the left is a retouched version of that image, lightened and with the background inexpertly removed. A higher resolution version is here.

Flying Form painted steel 57 x 106 x 41 cm. (Photo: IKS-41.) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. In August 2009, this is listed in the NGA system IRN=82562 but there is no photograph. The only mention we could find of it with Google is an appreciative comment, from 2000, by Alan Sisley. The work was in a touring exhibition The Europeans and Alan Sisley wrote:

“Inge King’s work Flying Form of 1961, is one of my favourite pieces in the show, welded steel of surprising airy grace. I wonder if it is just the context of this exhibition that causes me to see the ranked horizontals in grey steel as serried bombers? It is a highly original composition that is pleasant in form and texture.”

“…Euridice was produced in maquettes of steel and copper, and in bronzed steel during 1964 before the final, full scale, black painted steel sculpture was realised in 1965… Euridice presents different compositions from all sides, appearing as a dense compaction of thick, flat, irregular steelplates, and, from some viewpoints, sometimes as enfolding curved plates around a tall, spatial core… (its) density in some views suggests an organic character formed by molten metal, rather than assemblage. By 1965 such expressive monumentality has become the dominant aspect of King’s Abstract Expressionism.”

“In the other gallery Inge King’s Observer stands grimly aloof both in situation and quality from its co-inhabitants. Like the Jomantas piece, it is the presence of this work which is so impressive. The form itself watches, guards and hovers over the spectator. We don’t translate its meaning: it’s simply there, inescapable and rather daunting.”

IKS-54: One of the four “most brutally expressive” of her works, the others being Euridice (1965), Monitor (1967-68) and Double Boulder (1967-69).IKS-57: A lot of interesting discussion, including its “daunting, authoritative effect” and:

In 1964 she first created Male and Female 78 x 22 x 33 cm which is pictured on IKS 54. From a rectangular base-plate, two columns rise, both made of multiple elongated rectangular steel plates welded pretty roughly together. The caller column has a narrow roughly cylindrical head on a vertical axis and the shorter one has a wider, shorter, roughly cylindrical head on a horizontal axis.This was intended as a maquette for a full-scale rendition 6 to 7 metres tall. This has never been realised – sculptors typically don’t have the money to build large works unless working on a well-funded commission.

Inge King decided to enlarge the smaller figure to a size intermediate between the maquette and her intended full-scale height. The result is Observer which is shown in Mark Strizic’s photo on IKS 55 towering into the sky, with the tops of a eucalypt tree behind and below, from a stone base which itself is above the camera’s vantage point.

The maquette was in the possession of New Zealand based architects Gart and Renarte Block who were keen to see the work realised on a larger scale. She told me the location of Observer in a small courtyard near shops in Canberra (I am not sure exactly where it was) was a very good setting indeed. I got the impression that the sculpture was mounted on a block of stone, in a quiet corner. It was repaired after being seriously damaged in 1977 and she told me it was “never quite the same”.

Inge King referred to enlarging the smaller figure. Here, I think “figure” means the design of the physical object – not the actual object of the smaller column in Male and Female.There’s a lot of welded steel sculpture in the world now, and I have the impression that quite a lot of this which involves rougher welding and multiple plates and other pieces which don’t fit precisely together, is the result of a relatively unplanned session with a pile of scrap metal and an arc or oxy welder. This sounds like fun!

It is my impression of most or all of Inge King’s work, including her welded steel assemblages such as these two sculptures, results from a great deal of planning and deliberation. In this sense, the most important thing about Observer is that it is a larger and presumably truer physical rendering of a single figure which was first rendered as one of a pair in the smaller Male and Female. Yet this figure – this conception or design was from the outset intended by the artist to be realised as part of the pair of figures where the taller one reaches 6 to 7 metres – four times taller than most adults.

Observer made quite an impression when it was first shown. It is apparently meant to be mounted on a block of stone, above ground-level. Now it is safe from vandals and the elements, but it is indoors – and I understand it is mounted at ground level.

In the future I hope to be able to reproduce here some photos from the Inge King Sculptor book. When viewingObserver today, it may be helpful to consider its context – as the intermediate embodiment of one part of a work which from the outset Inge King wished to construct on a scale which would have the “heads” of both figures towering above our heads and our outstretched fingertips.

www.ballarat.edu.au/curator/collection/
view_notes.php?id=327
Catalogue No.UB055; Title: Organic Form; Date: c1967; Artist Name: King, Inge; Media: Sculpture – welded metal Size: 134.0 x 116.0 x 46.0
Purchased by Ballarat Teachers’ College students and staff of 1966 – 1967.

Sculpture 65
bronze, steel and colour
134 x 108.5 x 35.5
collection of University of Ballarat

Shell Sculpture
bronzed steel and colour
134 x 108.5 x 53.5
collection of University of Ballarat

1967-68 Boulder
bronzed steel, 99 x 76 x 66, collection of Warrandyte Community Centre.

“Anzac Parade is a formidable area because it’s like a big military avenue, if you like. They have those niches where they eventually want to put more sculptures. I knew there were steps leading up to this area and we got the size of the area. We knew what kind of trees they were going to plant. This was one of the first works where I used a number of units. Partly again I thought that people might move in between the units.But most people will drive along Anzac Parade; very few people will walk. When you drive along this horizontal unit slowly moves. You start to see a bit of it and then it moves behind another vertical unit.JG: In relation to the wing shapes.IK: Yes. Therefore you get a form of movement when you go past of the whole thing, because otherwise it’s a rather static design. This was the way I figured this work out. Actually, it consists of, I mean, the stainless steel are quarter inch and three-sixteenth plate. This was fabricated. I did all the finishing. I did all the grinding on that thing, because I wanted a certain way of grinding. It was interesting that when it went up in Canberra, I was really taken aback. Because I didn’t realise until then that the light in Canberra was entirely different from Melbourne. It’s a very stark light.”