Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

William Tucker
The Promise, original signed bronze sculpture by renowned British - US sculptor

ca. 1980

$15,000
£11,370.39
€13,276.07
CA$21,010.73
A$23,651.26
CHF 12,514.25
MX$293,364.83
NOK 154,604.11
SEK 147,865.17
DKK 99,046.08
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

William Tucker The Promise, ca. 1980 Bronze Signed and numbered 5/6 - incised on the metal 2 5/8 × 8 5/8 × 1 inch This abstract sculpture is by the renowned modern British born sculptor, William Tucker. This is a maquette for an important larger public sculpture "The Promise" that was part of the Martin Margulies public collection. William Tucker, along with the renowned sculptor Isaac Witkin and Philip King were part of a group of sculptors called "The New Generation" which shook up the art world in the 1960s. Very good vintage condition William Tucker Biography William Tucker read Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford from 1955 to 1958, while also attending the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1957 he was inspired by the exhibition Sculpture 1857-1957 at Holland Park to make his first sculptures. He made his first abstract constructions in steel and wood while studying at the Central School of Art and Design with John Warren Davies, and subsequently with Antony Caro at St Martin’s School of Art in 1959-60. At St Martin’s he met Phillip King, David Annesley and the other young sculptors, whose work was to make a radical break with tradition: their sculpture was abstract, constructed in modern industrial materials and placed directly on the ground, in contrast to the figurative bronzes on pedestals favoured in the 1950s and earlier. The new sculpture was shown as a group in the influential New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1965 and in other exhibitions in the US and Europe in the 1960s. Tucker had one person exhibitions at various galleries in London and New York from 1963, and represented Britain in the Venice Biennale of 1972 with sculptures that were more linear and optical in character, such as the Cat’s Cradle and Beulah series. He was given the first one person exhibition at the Arts Council Serpentine Gallery in 1973, and in 1975 curated the exhibition The Condition of Sculpture at the Hayward Gallery. Tucker taught at Goldsmiths’ College and St Martin’s during the 1960s, and in 1969 was appointed Gregory Fellow in Sculpture at the University of Leeds, where he gave a series of lectures on early modern sculpture; these were compiled with other essays and published in 1974 as The Language of Sculpture. His sculpture became larger and more frontal in aspect with such pieces as Tunnel (1975), now in the collection of the Tate Gallery, and Angel commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council for Livingstone New Town in 1976. Working in Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1970s, Tucker continued to show constructions in steel and wood on an architectural scale, such as An Ellipse (now in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum) and The House of the Hanged Man (the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Permanent installations of work from that period include The Rim in Atlanta, Georgia, and Victory, commissioned in 1998 for the Parque de la Memoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the early 1980s Tucker moved his studio to upstate New York, and started to work directly in plaster on a scale directly related to the human figure. Cast in bronze, these sculptures were shown with earlier steel and wood constructions in William Tucker, the American Decade at the Storm King Art Center in 1987. Okeanos in that exhibition was commissioned for the Scripps Clinic and Research Center, La Jolla, California. Tucker has continued to work in plaster for bronze up to the present day at a variety of scales, and with progressively more reference to the human body, both in image and handling of the material. During the 1990s he made many large charcoal drawings and a series of massive sculptures suggestive of male or female torsos, such as Frenhofer at the Goodwood Sculpture Park, and Maia, commissioned for the riverside park in Bilbao, Spain. In 1998 he started a series of roughly modelled heads, which were included in his 2001 retrospective exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park; he has enlarged several to heroic scale, such as Emperor shown at the RA Summer Exhibition in 2008. Messenger, based on the image of a foot, was recently shown in the Crucible exhibition at Gloucester Cathedral, and over the last several years Tucker has modelled a series of monumental sculptures suggestive of the figure but derived from the image of the hand. Tucker’s work has been recognized by various awards, including the Sculpture Center (New York) award for Distinction in Sculpture (1991), the Rodin-Moore Memorial Prize, Second Fujisankei Biennale, Japan (1995), the annual award from the New York Studio School (1999), the RA Summer Exhibition Sculpture Prize (2009), and the International Sculpture Center Lifetime Achievement Award (2010). -Courtesy Royal Academy, London
  • Creator:
    William Tucker (1935)
  • Creation Year:
    ca. 1980
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 2.63 in (6.69 cm)Width: 8.63 in (21.93 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Very good vintage condition.
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1745215929502

More From This Seller

View All
Abstract Bronze Sculpture, Unique Signed work from the estate of Arthur Carr
By Peter Reginato
Located in New York, NY
Peter Reginato Abstract Bronze Sculpture, ca. 1987 Bronze Signed on the underside 4 × 6 1/2 × 5 1/2 inches This bronze sculpture is by the American abstract sculptor Peter Reginato. ...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

70s Bronze Flower Sculpture Plaque limited edition Signed, Berkley Arts Foundry
By Ruth Asawa
Located in New York, NY
Ruth Asawa Bronze Flower, 1979 Cast Bronze relief plaque with original presentation box 5 1/4 × 6 1/4 × 1/4 inches Numbered from the Edition of 2500 Signed and dated 'Asawa 1979' (lower edge) incised in the bronze; numbered; stamped "Designed Exclusively for Crown Zellerbach Corporation"; foundry copyright Cast at the Berkley Arts Foundry for Crown Zellerbach Ruth Asawa's estate is represented by David Zwirner. This beautiful, limited edition signed cast bronze flower plaque...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Famed sculptor Nancy Graves unique signed patinated bronze sculpture NY Award
By Nancy Graves
Located in New York, NY
Nancy Graves New York State Governor's Arts Award, 1988 Bronze, polychrome patina and baked enamel on base with Award plaque 10 1/4 × 7 × 10 1/4 inches Hand signed and dated with inc...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze, Enamel

Medaglia 25 Anni Tecno Limited Edition bronze medallion plaque famous sculptor
By Arnaldo Pomodoro
Located in New York, NY
ARNALDO POMODORO Medaglia 25 Anni Tecno (Two Sided Bronze Medallion), 1979 Bronze (incised signature) 2 1/2 × 2 × 7/10 inches Edition 196/1600 Unframed This beautiful two sided limit...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Limited Edition Bronze Plaque (Placca), registered with the Pomodoro Foundation
By Arnaldo Pomodoro
Located in New York, NY
Arnaldo Pomodoro Plaque (Placca), 1980 Bronze 3 4/5 × 3 4/5 inches Edition of 500 Incised signature on the front top left, and foundry mark on the bottom; Rotary Club of Palermo plaq...
Category

1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Bronze Sculpture to Isaac Bashevis Singer, Arts in Judaism Award signed Judaica
By Nathaniel Kaz
Located in New York, NY
Nathaniel Kaz Bronze Sculpture to Isaac Bashevis Singer for Arts in Judaism Award, 1966 Bronze, Square wooden base, Metal tag Signed and dated "66" to back of bronze portion of the w...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal, Bronze

You May Also Like

Bronze Sculpture “Arise”
By Frank Arnold
Located in Fresno, CA
Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculptors of our time. He is a living master whose work is considered to be both personal a...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Bronze Sculpture “Surrender 8”
By Frank Arnold
Located in Fresno, CA
Frank Arnold is viewed as one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculptors of our time. He is a living master guided by a personal mission to “turn on a light in the human soul,” through his passionate creation of “Messengers” from his deeper mind connection with Carl Jung's archetypal images, the collective unconscious, and Jungian Synchronicity. These unconscious forms from his deeper mind resonate as personal messages of universal acceptance, reaching out to the viewer. Arnold has been honored as IAD Artist of the year 2018 by International Artist Day, and 2013 FAC Horizon Artist Award. He has exhibited his artwork in numerous galleries, museums, and is in collections worldwide. Arnold divides his working days between oil painting in San Jose del Cabo, Baja Sur...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Rushing
By Robert Cook
Located in Greenwich, CT
Robert Cook’s sculpture Rushing serves as an energetic reflection on the fast-paced nature of life—where so many of us are constantly in motion, hurrying from one place to another. H...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

el Grande Model bronze sculpture
By Bill Barrett
Located in Greenwich, CT
In 1983, returning to one of his earliest concepts, the standing figure, Barrett cast five small upright pieces that would become the Grande series. Barrett’s work became more organ...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Mandela
By Hans Van de Bovenkamp
Located in Greenwich, CT
Dutch, b. 1938 Renowned for his monumental sculpture created primarily for open-air public locales, Hans Van de Bovenkamp has been described as an artist-mystic whose work -- with i...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze, Stainless Steel

Personnage James Coignard Bronze Sculpture
By James Coignard
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Personnage Patinated Bronze Artist signed edition 7/24 JAMES COIGNARD (1925-2008) Painter of still lifes; Mised Media Painter; Collages; Sculptor; Engraver; Expressionistic style, l...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze