WILLIAM TUCKER

Not only is William Tucker one of the leading figures of English sculpture after Henry Moore but also a draughtsman whose drawings display an extraordinary subtlety. The large-format charcoal drawings being shown at the Buchmann Galerie were produced between 1989 and 2004 as individual works which accompany the themes of the sculptures which extend the medium of the drawing. As of 1985 Tucker began to create works whose titles were borrowed from the mythology of classical antiquity. Changing between figure and pure form they maintain the sensitive moment of the transition from the inert amorphous mass out of which they have been created and move towards recognizable figures. The drawings which arose parallel to the sculptural work vigorously examine this intermediate zone oscillating between figuration and abstract gesture. Done in charcoal on paper, a material which allows the most delicate shades of grey as well as velvety blacks, bodies appear in the drawings which seem to be modelled out of lines and surfaces. The paper used for the charcoal drawings is treated by the artist with the same sensibility as the surfaces of his sculptures; the charcoal assumes a resolute presence somewhere between the rough paper’s flatness and depth “Sculpture is the language of the physical.” William Tucker remarked once. This excellent observation can be supplemented in the light of the drawings: the music of physicality rings loud and clear from Tucker’s drawings.

In the 70’s William Tucker belonged to the influential circle of English sculptors, which also included Phillip King and Tim Scott, who were introduced as the ‘New Generation’ in the exhibition of the same name at the Whitechapel Art Gallery London in 1965. And it was here that decisive impulses for the evolution of abstract sculpture and a broadening of the term sculpture came to the fore. William Tucker took part in the pioneering exhibition for American Minimal Art called Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York. It was at this time that he also became well-known as a theorist, critic and organizer of exhibitions. William Tucker has been living in the USA since 1976.

Recent solo exhibitions of William Tucker’s work were at the Kunstmuseum Winthertur as well as at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao.

If you wish to obtain further information on the artist, please do not hesitate to contact the gallery.