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
Private Collection, Calgary
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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John McEwen
(1945)
John McEwen was born in Toronto in 1945. He currently lives and works in Hillsdale, Ontario. Co-founder and former director of A Space, John McEwen was honoured in 2007 with a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Lethbridge, Alberta. He is recognized both internationally and across Canada for his many site-specific installations and public commissions. In 2019 he was a recipient of the Order of Canada.
McEwen has created a fascinating body of work that reveals much about how humans and animals behave. His flame-cut steel animal silhouettes seem to contain the whole essence of what is "dog" or "wolf" or "deer". Some of his pieces are almost metal drawings in space, stating the minimum necessary to evoke the desired response.
