Noni
[Roger Fry's Post-Impressionism exhibition] awakened me from my enchanted dream ... The show ... was just an explosion - the demolition of all art forms I had come to know. I was affronted, even hurt, but what a vista!
Joyce Addenbrooke, known as 'Noni', danced at the Windmill Club in London in the 1930s. 'Dance' is incorrect as the club staged friezes of 'living statues' - standing nude women - to get past obscenity laws - if it moves it's rude! Noni shows Dobson's modelling of the partial figure, with Addenbrooke?s hand separately modelled to form a platform for her face. Dobson had learnt carving from a stone mason but by the time of this portrait he was modelling and casting.
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Summary
: L286
: Fine Art
: sculpture
: Noni
: DOBSON, Frank
: a silvered bronze sculpture, mounted on a plinth, showing: the head of Joyce Addenbroke (1919-2009), known as 'Noni', a dancer at the Windmill Club, London, during the 1930s; this work was commenced in 1938 (when Joyce Addenbrooke was at the Windmill Theatre) but was not completed until the following year; it was displayed in 'Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings by Frank Dobson', a retropective exhibition held at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery from 28/3/1940 to 11/4/1940 (cat. no. 8) from where it was purchased
Current Location
On Display at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Winterstoke (Front) Hall
: 1938-1939
: 1938-1939
: Purchased, 1940.