Clement Meadmore

Robin Gibson Gallery is Australian agent for The Meadmore Foundation, New York City

clement-meadmore

Clement Meadmore

SWASH 1973
3/9 bronze 15×28×19cm US$16,500

Clement Meadmore (February 9, 1929 – April 19, 2005) was born in Melbourne. The impulse towards art seems to have come from his mother, Mary Agnes Ludlow Meadmore, a Scotswoman who had lived in Australia from the time she was a small child. As a boy, Meadmore was strongly impressed by his mother’s interest in the work of an uncle, Jesse Jewhurst Hilder (1881 – 1916), an Australian watercolorist in the style of Corot. She also instilled an interest in ballet and, first among artists, Edgar Degas. It is tempting to see in this early exposure to Degas the seeds of Meadmore’s mature work, which frequently suggest the stress and strains of bodily motion. He originally studied aeronautical engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. After graduating in 1949, he designed furniture until 1953 when his first sculpture of welded steel was offered for sale. In 1953 he travelled to England, France and Germany, then in 1959 visited Japan.

While a young artist, his work was highly regarded and he was awarded a number of exhibitions, including several one-person shows in Melbourne and Sydney, where he lived from 1960. Meadmore moved to New York in 1963 at the age of 34 and later became a United States citizen. With the exception of a year spent in Australia, as photo editor for Vogue magazine, Meadmore has lived and worked in New York.

In his sculpture, Meadmore endows a single form with clarity and rigor, while at the same time conveys the complexity, expressiveness and dynamics of classic modernist sculpture which underlies Meadmore’s pursuit of a gestural or “drawn” character for his sculpture. Aside from matters of proportion, his work acquires a monumental scale and a mode of address that is engaged in rather than detached from the frankly public, occasionally heroic voice it adopts.

In a typical sculpture by Clement Meadmore, a single, rectangular volume repeatedly twists and turns upon itself before lunging into space, as if in a mood of aspiration or exhilaration, or simply to release physical forces held in tension. Meadmore’s works have always fused elements of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Since Meadmore’s sculptures are often large, this impression of effortless physical grace is simultaneously underscored and called into question through the fluid signature like immediacy of their physicality.

The combination of Minimalism’s ascendancy in the 1960’s and its uncompromising reductiveness precipitated a kind of crisis of values for Meadmore, giving him the resolve to move beyond Minimalism by establishing a set of variant aesthetic terms to work with and against. Indeed, despite superficial similarities with minimalism including, their formal clarity, their basis in geometry, their preference for smooth, uninflected surfaces, and, above all in their penchant for single, unitary forms – Meadmore’s sculptures express ideas and feelings beyond their factual presence. Unlike the minimalists, Meadmore never begins with an idea developed in advance. His compositions are arrived at intuitively.

Meadmore has said, “I am interested in geometry as a grammar which, if understood, can be used with great flexibility and expressiveness.” But Meadmore has gone farther. His starting point was geometry, a language or “grammar” that is both rigorously structured and conceptual in nature – a construct of the mind – and therefore intangible. He has evolved a method that has transformed geometry into something pliant and plastic. In his hands geometry has acquired an expressive suppleness and materiality more typical of such conventional and palpable media as wood and clay. To borrow his own phrase, Meadmore has in his work “transcended geometry,” thus placing the stamp of his individual vision on one of the primary modes of twentieth century art.

Meadmore has explored variations of elongated, squared metal tubes in a majority of his works. In the mid-1970s, his sculptures became more complex; the single bar divided, moving into multiple directions while the surfaces remained understated, painted a matte black or left to rust. “Offshoot” is an example of that development, as a single, squared tube twists upward to join a massive horizontal section which then divides and turns once more. An illusion of lightness is created as the dark horizontal piece balances effortlessly in spite of its weight and length of twenty-four feet.

Meadmore is represented in collections at major museums in Australia, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum and others in the United States and Japan. Large-scale sculptures have been installed on college campuses throughout the USA, including Princeton University. In his spare time, Meadmore liked to play the drums and to make jazz with his friends.

Clement Meadmore died in New York City on April 19, 2005.

Exhibitions

2010
Sculpture 22
2009
Small is the New Big
2009
Sculpture 21
2009
Clement Meadmore

Biography 1929 – 2005

1929
9 February, born in Melbourne

1948 – 49
Studied industrial design at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

1953
Travelled to England, France and Germany

1959
Visited Japan

1960
Moved to Sydney

1963
Moved to New York

1976
Became a United States citizen

2002
Doctor of Arts, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne

2005
19 April, died in New York

Solo Exhibitions

2011
Marlborough Chelsea Gallery, New York City, NY, USA
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, USA

2010
Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco CA USA

2009
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney

2007
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney

2005
Geometry Transcended, Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA

2004
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, United States.
New Sculptures, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2003
Century Club, New York, New York, United States.

2002
Butler Institute of American Art, Trumbull, Ohio

2001
Marlborough Chelsea, New York City

2000
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Galerie Salis & Vertes, Salzburg, Austria

1997
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Marianne Friedland Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

1995
Marianne Friedland Gallery, Naples, Florida
Marianne Friedland Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1994
Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit
David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee

1989
Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit
Sound Shore Gallery, Stamford, Connecticut
Contemporary Sculpture Centre, Tokyo
David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee

1988
International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.
Ingber Gallery, New York

1987
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1986
David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee
White Plains Library, New York

1983
Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York City

1982
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan

1981
Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico
Amarillo Art Center, Texas

1980
J.B.Speed Art Museum, Louisville
Davenport Art Gallery, Iowa
Jacksonville Art Museum, Florida
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio

1979
The New Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago
David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee
Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque

1978
Hamilton Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York City
Suzette Schochet Gallery, Newport, Rhode Island
Ruth S.Schaffner Gallery, Los Angeles
Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston
Irving Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida
Michael Berger Gallery, Pittsburgh

1977
Hamilton Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York City
Suzette Schochet Gallery, Newport, Rhode Island
Ruth S.Schaffner Gallery, Los Angeles

1976
Louisiana Gallery, Houston
King Pitcher Gallery, Pittsburgh
Olympia Gallery, Philadelphia

1975
Rice University, Houston
University of Texas, Austin

1974
Galerie Denise Rene/Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf, Germany.

1973
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York
Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit

1972
Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York City
Gallery A, Sydney, Australia

1971
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York City
Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago

1970
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York City

1969
Australian Sculpture Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Byron Gallery, New York City

1968
Byron Gallery, New York City

1967
Byron Gallery, New York City

1962
Terry Clune Gallery, Sydney
Gallery A, Melbourne

1960
Clune Galleries, Sydney

1959
Gallery A, Melbourne

1954
Brummels Gallery, Melbourne

1951
First solo exhibition, Melbourne

Group Exhibitions

1996-2011
Annual Sculpture Surveys, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney

2011
‘Here in Spirit’ with Elwyn Lynn, Oliffe Richmond & Bryan Westwood, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney

2008
Galerie Salis & Vertes, Salzburg at Cologne Art Fair

2001
Koussevitzky Art Gallery, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA

2000
Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York
Hillwood Art Museum, Brookville, New York
Cooper Union, New York City

1999
Century Club, New York City

1998
Century Club, New York City

1997
Century Club, New York City
Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, Hamilton, Ohio
Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey

1996
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York City

1995
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York City

1994
Sound Shore Gallery, Stamford, Connecticut
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York City

1993
Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York City
Chelsea Harbour Sculpture 93, London

1992
Andre Emmerich Gallery,New York City
Gloria Luria Gallery,Miami,Florida
American Abstract Artists,Edwin A.Ulrich Museum of Art,Wichita,Kansas

1991
Andre Emmerich Gallery,New York City

1989
ACA Gallery,New York City
Andre Zarre Gallery,New York City
Sound Shore Galley,Stamford,Connecticut

1987
The Gallery at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

1985
School of Visual Arts, New York City

1984
Contemporary Sculpture,Toledo, Ohio
Dubelle Gallery, New York City

1983
“Bronze in Washington Square”, Washington DC

1981
“Sculpture Outside”, Cleveland, Ohio

1978
Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts
Living Sculpture, OK Harris Gallery, NewYork City

1977
Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh
Project – New Urban Monuments, Akron, Ohio

1976
‘Twenty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition’ Society of Sculptors & Associates, Sculpture Centre, Sydney
Super Sculpture, New Oleans
Lehman College, New York City

1975
Outdoor Show, Houston
Winter Exhibition, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne

1974
’50 Years of the National Art School’ Bonython Gallery, Sydney
‘Gifts from Patrick White’ Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
‘Monumenta I’, Newport, Rhode Island, USA
‘Invitational Sculpture ‘74’, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

1973
Whitney Museum Annual, New York City
“The City is for the People”, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego
“Sculpture off the Pedestal”, Grand Rapids, Michigan
’4 Artists from Max Hutchinson Gallery New York’, Gallery A, Sydney
‘Realities Sculpture Survey’ Realities Gallery & Como, Melbourne
‘Contemporary Australian Painting & Sculpture 1973’ New Zealand

1972
‘Penhallow’ mixed exhibition, Castlecrag, Sydney
‘Australian Sculpture’ John Gild Galleries, Perth, Western Australia
Washington Heights Out door Sculpture Project, New York City

1971
‘Monumental Sculpture’ Boston, Mass, USA
‘Recent Australian Art’ Travelling Exhibition, Papua New Guinea
‘Connoisseurs Collection’ Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University, Melbourne
‘Winter Exhibition’ Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne
“Sculpture in the Parks”, New Jersey
‘International Sculpture Symposium’ Burlington, Vermont, USA

1970
‘Australian Art Today’ Albert Hall, Canberra, touring in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand & Philippines
‘Spring Exhibition’ Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne
‘The Australian Irresistibles 1930 – 1970s’ Bonython Gallery, Sydney
‘The Seventies Exhibition’ Gallery A, Melbourne
‘Monumental Art’ Cincinnati,Ohio
’7 Outside’, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

1969
Whitney Museum Annual, New York City
Rockefeller Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Mexican Olympics Outdoor Sculpture, Mexico City, Mexico
Byron Gallery, New York City
Two man show with John Coburn, Australian Sculpture Gallery, Canberra

1968
‘Pan Pacific Arts Festival’ Art Galleries of Wellington, Auckland & Dunedin, New Zealand
‘The Field’ National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne & Art Gallery of NSW Sydney
Whitney Museum Annual, New York City
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey USA
Larry Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut USA
Riverside Museum, New York City

1967
Guggenheim International, New York City & Canada
‘Sculpture of the Month’ Central Park, New York
‘Riverside Music Group Show’ New York

1966
‘Opening Exhibition of 35 Sculptors’ Australian Sculpture Centre, Canberra, Australia

1965
‘Recent Trends in Australian Art’ Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
‘Sixth Anniversary Exhibition’ Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
‘Box Show’ Byron Gallery, New York

1964-65
‘Recent Australian Sculpture’ all State Galleries of Australia

1964
‘Selection from the Rudy Komon Collection’ Gallery A, Melbourne
Fischback Group Show, New York

1962
‘Four Arts in Australia’ Official Australian Sculpture Exhibition traveling throughout South East Asia
‘Models & Designs of Sculpture’ Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney
‘Survey 2’ Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
‘Sydney 9’ with Olsen, Rapotec, Upward & Rose, Sydney and Melbourne

1961
International Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Musee Rodin, Paris
Mildura Prize for Sculpture, Mildura Art Gallery, Victoria
‘Sydney 9’ David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
‘Sydney 9’ Gallery A, Melbourne
‘Sculpture’ Eastside Gallery, Melbourne
‘Sculpture in Sydney’ Society of Sculptors & Associates, David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
‘Sydney 9 Exhibit’ Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
Victorian Sculptors’ Society & Council of Adult Education Traveling Exhibition, ‘‘Sculpture Today’

1960
Contemporary Art Society (SA), Charles Birk Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
Chadstone Shopping Centre Sculpture Competition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Contemporary Australian Art, Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand
Two man show with Peter Upwood, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
Anniversary Exhibition, Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
Group Exhibition, Eastside Gallery, Melbourne
‘Sydney 9’ with Olsen, Rapotec, Upward & Rose, Sydney and Melbourne
‘Sculpture Today’ Victorian Sculptors Society, Melbourne

1959
43 Dalgety Strret Melbourne, inaugural exhibition ‘Outset’ painting & sculpture
‘Recent Australian Sculpture’ toured all state galleries
Baillieu Library Mural Competition, Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Victorian Sculptors Society, Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
Victorian Sculptors Society, Victorian Artists Society Galleries, Melbourne
Two man show with Boyd Turner, Gallery A, Melbourne
ANZCICD Festival Art Exhibition, Victorian Artists Society Galleries, Melbourne
Italian Government Sculpture Competition, Nation Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Mixed Exhibition of Sculpture, Brighton High School, Melbourne

1958
‘Society of Sculptors & Associates’ David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
‘Retrospect Five Years’ Victorian Artists Society Galleries, Melbourne
Two man show with Peter Upward, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1957
‘Nine Sculptors’ Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne
‘Twelve Melbourne Sculptors’ Brummels Gallery, Melbourne

1956
Wilson Hall, University of Melbourne, Arts Festival, Olympic Games, Melbourne

1955
Third Herald Outdoor Art Show, Treasury Gardens, Melbourne

1954
RMIT, Melbourne Australia ‘A Tribute to Harold Brown’

Collections

Adachi Outdoor Sculpture Collection, Japan
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
The Art Institute of Chicago
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Atlantic Richfield Oil Company
Australian Club, Sydney
Australian Mutual Provident Society
Benala Art Gallery, Victoria
Besen Sculpture Park, Melbourne, Australia
Butler Institute of American Art, Trumbull, OH
Hale Boggs Federal Building, New Orleans
Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Michigan
Bradley Collection, Milwaukee
Chase Manhattan Bank
City of New York
Cleveland Museum of Art
Columbia University, New York City
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio
Cororcan Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Iowa
Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan
Developers Diversified, Moreland Hills, Ohio
Dennos Museum, Traverse City, Michigan
Fukuoka City, Japan
Gallaudet College,Washington, D.C.
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Greycoat-Hanover Associates, New York City
Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey
Hale Boggs Federal Building, New Orleans
Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas
Kitz Building, Makuhari, Japan
Lake Fairfax Business Centre, Reston, Virginia
Libbey-Owens-Ford, Toledo, Ohio
Linclay Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio
McAuley Health Centre, Ann Arbor, Michigan
McClelland Gallery, Lanwarrin, Victoria
MEPC-Quorum, Dallas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Mexico City
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence National Gallery of Victoria
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, Newport Harbour Art Museum, California
New York State, Albany
Northbridge Centre, Palm Beach
Pittsburgh National Bank
Portland Art Institute, Oregon
Princeton University
Queensland Art Gallery, Australia
Rhode Island School of Design Museum
Rodman Rockerfeller
Smith Kline Corporation,Philadelphia
J.B.Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Sterling Drug, Pennsylvania
TarraWarra Art Museum, Healesville, Victoria
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space
University of Houston
Victorian Arts Centre, Australia
Yokohama Private Railroad, Japan

Bibliography

  • THE SCULPTURE OF CLEMENT MEADMORE, Eric Gibson, Hudson Hills Press, 1994
  • Some Other Dream: The Artist, The Artworld & the Expatriate, GEOFFREY DE GROEN, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1984
  • Contemporary Sculpture in Australian Gardens. KEN SCARLETT, Gordon and Breach
    Arts International, Sydney, 1993
  • The Best Style: Marion Hal Best and Australian Interior Design 1935-1975, MIC RICHARDS, Craftsman House, Sydney
  • FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS, Lois Hunter, Reed Books 1996, New Holland Publishers 2003

Publications

  • Clement Meadmore HOW TO MAKE FURNITURE WITHOUT TOOLS, Pantheon Books, 1975
  • Clement Meadmore ALL SOUND AND NO FRILLS, New York NY: Pantheon Books, 1978
  • Clement Meadmore THE MODERN CHAIR: CLASSICS IN PRODUCTION New York
    (Van Nostrand Reinhold), 1979
  • Clement Meadmore SKYSCRAPER SCULPTURES: AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL
    BY CLEMENT MEADMORE Self published, 1979
 
 

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