Throughout his career, the British painter Graham Sutherland used semi-abstracted, haunting shapes that, like visual metaphors, designated completely different objects. The artist believed that art’s duty was not to replicate the appearance of objects but to explain their essence through a substitution of forms. At mid-career, Sutherland created several highly sculptural, monumental standing forms that employed organic shapes to evoke the essence of the human figure. In Three Standing Forms in a Garden, the artist includes abstracted components such as bamboo roots for the lower part of the figure at left, a conical pillar of stacked corn for the trunk of the middle figure, and gourds and hanging maize for the form at far right.
Serves as a trustee of the Tate Gallery in London from 1948 to 1954; other accounts say he became a member of its board in 1949.
September 1950
First visit to Venice
He visits Venice for the first time in September 1950. Later, having gained several patrons in Italy through his portraits, he spends his summers working in his own Venice studio.
1951
Retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
A major retrospective of his work is held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The same year he is commissioned to produce a large work for the Festival of Britain.
1952
Exhibition in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Exhibits in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale alongside Edward Wadsworth and the New Aspects of British Sculpture Group.
