Frontier Sculpture & Monuments
Frontier Sculpture & Monuments
British Sculpture in India ~ New Views and Old Memories
Mary Ann Steggles & Richard Barnes
When Mary Ann Steggles began her studies on the subject of historic statues
exported from Britain to colonies in South Asia, she picked an interest which
has fascinated British and Indian historians. It concerns a parallel collection
to the sculptures in the streets of Britain, with works by Bacon, Baily, Banks,
Bell, Boehm, Brock, Chantrey, Flaxman, Foley, Gilbert, Jagger, MacKennal, Marochetti,
Kathleen Scott, Thornycroft and others.
Presenting new and sometimes first views of this ‘collection’,
the book is Prefaced by the eminent sculpture historian, Benedict
Read, author of ‘Victorian Sculpture’. There follows a 'View from
Calcutta' by Tapati Guha-Thakurta, placing the subject in a modern context
in India. Next come 200
concise descriptions by Richard Barnes, entwining subject and artist biographies,
sculpture
anecdotes
and reports. However, the core of the project is the writing of Mary Ann Steggles,
offering the historical base and account of the commissioning and exportation
of statues from Britain to India. The book’s pages are designed to be
a pleasure to look at, as old plates are balanced with newly commissioned photos
in a treatment which ‘shows off’ sculpture and the skill of the
artists. Authoritative, highly illustrative and bulging with histories, here
is the only exposition of the largest amount of British sculptures outside
the country.
This is a rare book to be commended to devotees of sculpture
in five continents and anyone interested in the endless peculiarities of India’s
connection with Britain.
320pp, 280 illus (col), h/b, Dec 2011, ISBN: 978-1-872914-41-1. £50 (Click
on blue title for CONTENTS and more pictures).
The Glorious Dead ~ Figurative Sculpture
of British First World War Memorials
Geoff Archer
The subject is the the subtitle: it is all about the sculptural images which
connect us by memory, metal and stone to the Great War which began 95 years
ago and still fills us with awe. It is a subject that has waited decades
to be gathered
together in a book; a period of time which has seen the critical dismissal
and decline of figurative sculpture, the death of those sculptors and all
the men
who went to the Great War. What is left to remember? The sculptures themselves!
Geoff Archer has filled a missing gap in 20th century sculpture studies and
redeems the war memorial sculpture of the 1920s to the canon of British art
history.
To open his book is an initiation.
416pp, 270 illus (mono), p/b,
ISBN: 978-1-872914-38-1. £30(Click on blue title for full description and more pictures).
John Bell - The
Sculptor’s Life & Works
Richard Barnes.
The first book about John Bell,1811-1895, who was linked to Henry Cole
and Prince Albert in the Socety of Arts leading up to The Great
Exhibition. The
sculptor made grand monuments in London, and also worked with manufacturers,
his statues being first in Coalbrookdale’s iron, largest in Doulton’s terracotta and most popular in Minton’s
Parian ceramic. Chronological biography, list of works, illustration
and British Art history.
192pp. H/b. ISBN: 978-1-872914-19-0. £42.00
The Year of Public Sculpture - Norfolk
Richard Barnes.
Sculpture is the commemorative art and Norfolk memories are brought
to focus on statues. In 2000-2001, the year of public Sculpture,
The Eastern
Daily
Press printed 35 features with colour photographs spotlighting
individual works,
sculptors’ lives and Norfolk history.
48pp.p/b. Colour throughout. ISBN: 978-1-872914-22-0. £7.95
Artist of an Icon /
The Memoirs of Arnold Machin RA
The artist who created the Queen’s Head on British postage stamps,
the most reproduced image of all time. From Minton apprentice
in the Potteries
in
1925 to RA Professor of Sculpture.
224pp, inc 100 col ills, h/b, ISBN: 978-1-872914-25-1. £24.00
The Obelisk - A Monumental Feature in Britain.
Richard
Barnes
Nobody considered Britain's obelisks before, preferring to regard
them as inferiors to the magnificent obelisks of Egypt. Britain
has roughly
3,000
obelisks and
the sculpture and travel author traces history from when Englishmen
saw the Egyptian obelisks in Rome. The first obelisk arrived
in England c1570
and
by the 1700s obelisks were raised with new uses, as landmarks,
hilltop eyecatchers, milestones etc. Monolithic obelisks in polished
granite
streamed into the
new
cemeteries in the 19th century and soon after a thousand WWI
war memorial obelisks were added. Includes J.Bell’s lectures
on obelisks and ends with a gazetteer of Britain's obelisks.
240pp h/b inc 80 colour & mono photos, ISBN: 978-1-872914-28-2 £35.00
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