Artist Research.

Relief Artists

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was an artist working in the early 20th century. Born in Saint Jean-De-Bruye near Orleans, Gaudier moved to London  in 1910 as an aspiring artist even though he lacked any formal training and quickly became under the influence of Jacob Epstein, a founding member of the 'London group'. Under Epstein's influence Gaudier began to direct a new approach to his sculpture embracing a more direct, earthy style where carving marks made by his tools were left visible, thus leaving behind the polished and highly finished style of sculpture before.

'Wrestlers' 

Gaudier produced the large plaster relief in 1914 and the cast was made in 1965 by curator Jim Ede in an attempt to make Gaudier's work better known as his relevance from being one of the most radical and innovative artists of his generation had slipped. He was commissioned to make a small figure of a wrestler in 1912 which sparked his incessant focus on the subject of wrestling and wrestlers before the second world war. Gaudier was fascinated by the artistic probabilities of a wrestling match subsequently producing a series of drawings and 2 sculptures depicting this. The theme of wrestling, boxing and other pugilistic arts was popular amongst other prominent Avant-Garde artists around the early twentieth century. The works Gaudier produced surrounding the subject depicted modern muscle and aesthetic, material and the ideological potential compared to this relief where the figures are stylised and elongated. 

Wrestlers