Maquette for After Babel by John McEwen
John McEwen
Maquette for After Babel
bronze
signed with initials, dated 1993 and numbered 4/7; presented on a marble base
7.75 x 18.25 x 14.5 ins ( 19.7 x 46.4 x 36.8 cms ) ( overall )
Auction Estimate: $5,000.00 - $7,000.00
Price Realized $4,500.00
Sale date: November 22nd 2016
Provenance:
Private Collection, Calgary
Private Collection, Calgary
According to the city of Montreal’s Public Art website, a collaboration between John McEwen and Marlene Hinton-Moore, this artwork is the maquette for “After Babel, A Civic Square,” installed in Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles in 1993 following a competition by invitation. The artwork acted as a gift from the city of Toronto for Montreal’s 350th anniversary. “The intention of ‘After Babel, A Civic Square’ is
to go beyond the limitations of verbal communication. Speech is necessarily useless in communication between people and animals; it must give way to the gestures and other modes of expression...In McEwen’s view, the sculptural grouping ‘creates a form of freedom between languages by emphasizing vocabularies of silence that allow communication without words.’ ”
to go beyond the limitations of verbal communication. Speech is necessarily useless in communication between people and animals; it must give way to the gestures and other modes of expression...In McEwen’s view, the sculptural grouping ‘creates a form of freedom between languages by emphasizing vocabularies of silence that allow communication without words.’ ”
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