Manual Ref* NFklHH011 Show 6 images 1206
Title*

Dunstable reel
County Norfolk   District Council King's Lynn 
Civil Parish or equivalent New Houghton  Town/Village* Houghton Hall 
Road  
Precise Location North garden 
OS Grid Ref   Postcode  
Previous location(s) Exhibited Masterpiece London, 2014 
Setting Garden  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Philip King  Sculptor(s)   

Commissioned by

  

Design & Constrn period

 2013 

Date of installing

 2015 

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: sculpture

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
  Painted steel  195.7 (h) x 546.4 (w) x 574.4 (d) cm 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Houghton Hall estate 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail:

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions  

Description (physical)

  

Description (iconographical)

 In 1969 King rented a large shed on a farm, Clay Hall Farm, near Dunstable, just outside London, and set about equipping it for working in steel. At the time he was using a London engineering firm, W. Hartley Ltd, to fabricate his steel sculptures from models, usually made in cardboard. But King found this process unsatisfactory; the larger and more complex the structure the more closely the model had to be followed, making the possibility of: changing the work in mid-stream less open-ended. Dunstable reel was even larger [than Reel] and therefore more tightly bound by the conditions of the factory. I let them get on with it a bit more than I would have liked and although I found the whole process interesting, I missed my freedom and that is why I set up my studio at Dunstable in a way that is closer to a fabricating shop than a traditional studio.1 Dunstable reel grew out of the sculpture Reel 1969, in which King first used a sequence of rhythmically unfolding shapes. Dunstable reel is larger and more measured in its rhythms, 'a slow lift and movement of one thing against another rather than a tip-toe jumpy thing'. Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is frequently mentioned in relation to the prancing curved shapes of these sculptures and there is no doubt that King was greatly impressed by the Matisse retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in 1968 and the 1970 Grand Palais exhibition. When Dunstable reel was first exhibited at the Rowan Gallery in July 1970, John Russell wrote: 'The title derives from an English folk-dance, and I don't think it is fanciful to see in Dunstable reel a sculptural equivalent of the round-dance re-created by Matisse in his great Dance of 1909 and 1910'. However, according to King himself, 'One could say Matisse was on my mind at the time, but the fact that it [Dunstable reel] appears to be cut out of a single sheet of steel which is bent and opened out has more roots in constructivism than Matisse'. Dunstable reel was made in an edition of three, the other two examples being in the Tate Gallery, London (Alistair McAlpine Gift) and with the Leicestershire Education Authority (installed at Countersthorpe College). The artist retained the right to produce one further sculpture in the edition, this one produced in 2013 and exhibited in 2014.  

Photographs

 Date taken:  1/7/2017
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  1/7/2017

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Michael Lloyd & Michael Desmond European and American Paintings and Sculptures 1870-1970 in the Australian National Gallery 1992 p.416. Phillip King, correspondence with the Gallery, 20 June 1987. The Alistair McAlpine Gift, London: Tate Gallery, 1971 (exhibition catalogue), pp.70-1. John Russell, 'London: Phillip King', Artnews, vol. 69, no https://nga.gov.au/International/Catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=82142  

Database

 Date entered:  29/7/2017

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke