Bristol City Council : Museum Collections

In the mid 1960s, the sculptor Bernard Meadows (1915-2005) began to use abstract shapes in his sculpture to express human fear and anxiety. The crushed sphere in this work appears to cry for help. Meadows was interested in the philosophy of Existentialism and this work reflects some of the themes in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) and Albert Camus (1913-60), such as the individual's fundamental isolation and the belief that human life has no purpose.

Acknowledgement: Â©Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives

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Object Number: N7962

Collection: Fine Art

Object Name: sculpture

Title: Help (opus 81)

Artist: MEADOWS, Bernard

Description: a polished and lacquered bronze sculpture, modelled in 1966 and cast in 1968, showing: two hard and solid shapes 'squashing' a softer rounded shape; the artist polished the bronze to maximise the metal's natural, golden colour, and used different textures to emphasise the forms; Meadows began to use abstract shapes in his sculpture to express human fear and anxiety during the mid-1960s; in this work, the 'squashed' rounded shape appears to cry for help

On Display at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Temporary Exhibition Gallery 2 [formerly Balcony Gallery]

Date of Production: 1968

Associated Date: 1966

: 1968

Credit Line: Given by the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery with the assistance of the Gulbenkian Foundation, 1968.

Bristol's Free Museums and Historic Houses

N7962

Summary

Help (opus 81)

N7962

What it Means to be Human

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