William Redgrave
Encyclopedia
William Redgrave was a British
sculptor. His major work The Event was mostly destroyed in the 2004 Momart
warehouse fire.
William Redgrave was born in Little Ilford
, Essex
. He worked for the BBC
for a time. In World War II
he was an air raid warden. With Peter Lanyon
he then ran an art school in St Ives
; Francis Bacon
rented a studio from them and, in 1957, encouraged Redgrave to take up sculpture.
His girlfriend in the 1960s was Jenny Pearson, who was a feature writer for The Times
at one stage in her life. In Chelsea she saw him create his major work. This was The Event, a bronze triptych
, measuring 56 x 124" overall, weighing a tonne
and consisting of 228 figures arranged in 49 different scenes each with a theme, such as flirtation or gang murder. It took the artist three years to make. When it was finished, he said, ""Some great outside thing is happening to these people—something we all fear might be going to happen." The Scottish poet Alan Bold
wrote a poem about the work and said the figures were "forced/To face the judgement of a world they represent." The Event was first shown at the Royal Academy
in 1966. The Daily Telegraph reviewed it as:
Giacomo Manzù
's bronze doors for St Peter's
, Rome
were cited as a comparison. Sir John Rothenstein
, Director of the Tate Gallery
also expressed admiration. It was scheduled for installation in the new Kensington and Chelsea
Town Hall, but this plan was cancelled because of financial restraints.
In the 1970s, Redgrave did portrait heads of a number of noted people, including Henry Cooper
, Diana Rigg
and Laurence Olivier
. The bust of Olivier is now in the Olivier Theatre Foyer, Royal National Theatre
in the South Bank
complex.
In 1998 The Event was part of a retrospective at the Roy Miles Gallery in west London
. Redgrave's family then put the work into storage with Momart
, and were working on plans for a permanent display of it. In 2004 it was in the east London Momart warehouse destroyed by fire, along with works by Tracey Emin
, Jake and Dinos Chapman
, and Damien Hirst
, amongst others. Critic Bevis Hillier
called it "by far the greatest loss" of the fire, but it was initially not mentioned in news reports, until publicised by the campaigning art group the Stuckists
on their web site (billed as a "world exclusive"). Five days before the fire, the family had paid £5,508 in back fees.
Remarkably, although the left hand side of the triptych was completely destroyed, the sculptor's son, Christopher Redgrave, was able to personally retrieve, in two trips, at least 30 of the 228 figures in good shape — about a third of the central panel, as well as other fragments, though cutting his hands badly on broken glass in the process. He described the experience:
As far as is known he is the only person out of the artists or artists' relatives to have been to the site; he said, "this building was inappropriate for what they are doing. There's no way around that."
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sculptor. His major work The Event was mostly destroyed in the 2004 Momart
Momart
Momart is a British company specialising in the storage, transportation, and installation of works of art. It has been owned by Falkland Islands Holdings since 5 March 2008....
warehouse fire.
William Redgrave was born in Little Ilford
Little Ilford
Little Ilford is a district of London, England in the London Borough of Newham and the name of a ward in that borough.-Locale:It is located near to Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. He worked for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
for a time. In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was an air raid warden. With Peter Lanyon
Peter Lanyon
Peter Lanyon was a Cornish painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. He also made constructions, pottery and collage....
he then ran an art school in St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
; Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
rented a studio from them and, in 1957, encouraged Redgrave to take up sculpture.
His girlfriend in the 1960s was Jenny Pearson, who was a feature writer for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
at one stage in her life. In Chelsea she saw him create his major work. This was The Event, a bronze triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
, measuring 56 x 124" overall, weighing a tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
and consisting of 228 figures arranged in 49 different scenes each with a theme, such as flirtation or gang murder. It took the artist three years to make. When it was finished, he said, ""Some great outside thing is happening to these people—something we all fear might be going to happen." The Scottish poet Alan Bold
Alan Bold
Alan Norman Bold was a Scottish poet, biographer and journalist.He edited Hugh MacDiarmid's Letters and wrote the influential biography MacDiarmid. Bold had acquainted himself with MacDiarmid in 1963 while still an English Literature student at Edinburgh University. His debut work, Society...
wrote a poem about the work and said the figures were "forced/To face the judgement of a world they represent." The Event was first shown at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 1966. The Daily Telegraph reviewed it as:
Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù, pseudonym of Giacomo Manzoni , was an Italian sculptor, communist, and Roman Catholic.-Biography:...
's bronze doors for St Peter's
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
were cited as a comparison. Sir John Rothenstein
John Rothenstein
Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein CBE was an English art historian. He grew up in London the son of Sir William Rothenstein. The family was loosely connected to the Bloomsbury Set. John Rothenstein studied at Oxford University and became friends with T. E. Lawrence...
, Director of the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
also expressed admiration. It was scheduled for installation in the new Kensington and Chelsea
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a central London borough of Royal borough status. After the City of Westminster, it is the wealthiest borough in England....
Town Hall, but this plan was cancelled because of financial restraints.
In the 1970s, Redgrave did portrait heads of a number of noted people, including Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper may refer to:*Sir Henry Cooper , British Heavyweight boxer*Henry Cooper from Tennessee*Henry Cooper , English recipient of the Victoria Cross...
, Diana Rigg
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
and Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
. The bust of Olivier is now in the Olivier Theatre Foyer, Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in the South Bank
South Bank
South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...
complex.
In 1998 The Event was part of a retrospective at the Roy Miles Gallery in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Redgrave's family then put the work into storage with Momart
Momart
Momart is a British company specialising in the storage, transportation, and installation of works of art. It has been owned by Falkland Islands Holdings since 5 March 2008....
, and were working on plans for a permanent display of it. In 2004 it was in the east London Momart warehouse destroyed by fire, along with works by Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
, Jake and Dinos Chapman
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Iakovos "Jake" Chapman and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman are English visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers, who work together as a collaborative sibling duo...
, and Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
, amongst others. Critic Bevis Hillier
Bevis Hillier
Bevis Hillier is an English art historian, author and journalist. He has written on Art Deco, and also a biography of Sir John Betjeman.-Life and work:...
called it "by far the greatest loss" of the fire, but it was initially not mentioned in news reports, until publicised by the campaigning art group the Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
on their web site (billed as a "world exclusive"). Five days before the fire, the family had paid £5,508 in back fees.
Remarkably, although the left hand side of the triptych was completely destroyed, the sculptor's son, Christopher Redgrave, was able to personally retrieve, in two trips, at least 30 of the 228 figures in good shape — about a third of the central panel, as well as other fragments, though cutting his hands badly on broken glass in the process. He described the experience:
- There was a smell of rotting food, rotting chips, rotting meat from one of the units Momart shared the building with ... There were bits of glass hanging from the roof. I had to climb over steel girders. It looked like a twisted rollercoaster that had crashed.
As far as is known he is the only person out of the artists or artists' relatives to have been to the site; he said, "this building was inappropriate for what they are doing. There's no way around that."