Robert Adams

Robert Adams (1917–1984) was one of the most distinguished British sculptors of the post-war period. Working primarily in stone, wood and metal, he developed an increasingly abstract language based on the balance of geometric and organic forms. His sculpture is characterised by clarity of construction, economy and a close understanding of materials, qualities that set him somewhat apart from the more expressionist tendencies of many of his contemporaries.

Born in Northampton, Adams left school at fourteen and worked for an agricultural engineering company, gaining practical experience of metalworking that later became important to his sculpture. From 1937 he attended evening classes in life drawing and painting at Northampton School of Art. During the Second World War he served as a fire warden in the Civil Defence and exhibited alongside other artists working within the service.

Adams initially worked as a painter but began making sculpture during the 1940s. A visit to Paris brought him into contact with the work of Constantin Brancusi and Henri Laurens, and he increasingly turned towards abstraction. His first solo exhibition was held at Gimpel Fils in London in 1947.

The Redfern Gallery first showed Adams in 1949, when five of his prints were included in Les Peintres Graveurs. His lithograph Composition with Drawn Forms of the same year demonstrates how closely his graphic work paralleled the development of his sculpture, reducing forms to an increasingly spare and abstract vocabulary. Redfern has continued to include Adams in exhibitions of Modern British art, reflecting the gallery’s longstanding interest in the generation of post-war sculptors and Constructive artists.

From 1949 to 1959 Adams taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. There he came into contact with Victor Pasmore, Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin, artists who were instrumental in the development of Constructivist ideas in Britain. During this period Adams began welding steel and increasingly explored the relationship between planes, lines, circles and open space. His abstract forms were often derived from structures observed in nature rather than from pure geometry.

His reputation grew rapidly during the 1950s. In 1951 he was commissioned to produce a monumental carving for the Festival of Britain, and the following year his sculpture was included in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Ten years later, in 1962, he was given a retrospective presentation of sculpture at the Venice Biennale, confirming his international standing.

Adams also undertook numerous architectural and public commissions in Britain, Europe and the United States, producing work for schools, churches, banks and public buildings as well as for the P&O liner Canberra. His sculpture became progressively more refined and monumental, often combining severe geometric structures with subtle changes of surface and proportion.

His work was frequently selected for British Council exhibitions abroad from the 1950s onwards and travelled widely through Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Works such as Triangular Forms were included in major international surveys of contemporary British sculpture during the 1960s.

Adams died in 1984. His work is held in major public collections including Tate, the British Museum, the Arts Council Collection and the British Council Collection. He is now recognised as one of the most rigorous and accomplished British sculptors of his generation.