Sitting People

Kenneth Armitage first saw international success with his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1952. In that same year, he began working on Sitting People, making the sculpture a prime example of that creative phase in his work.

The three figures are embedded in an irregular rectangle, with only their heads and extremities extending beyond its surface. In this way, they are simultaneously part of a relief and freestanding sculptures. Nonetheless, they have been reduced and only their frontal view is depicted.

Their antiquated appearance makes them reminiscent of the stone idols created in the Cyclades in ca. 2,500 BC. As early abstract works, these ancient stone sculptures influenced many modern sculptors.

With this juxtapositioning of antiquated and modern references (Moore, Brancusi) within an individual work, Armitage exemplified the first generation of British sculptors after World War II.