Artist of the day: Artist of the day (Australia week) November 1: Inge King, Australian sculptor

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Artist of the day (Australia week) November 1: Inge King, Australian sculptor

Ingeborg Viktoria "Inge" King AM (1915 – 2016) was a German-born Australian sculptor. She received many significant public commissions. Her work is held in public and private collections. Her best known work is Forward Surge (1974) at the Melbourne Arts Centre. She became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in January 1984.

King studied at the Berlin Academy from 1937 to 1938, at the Royal Academy School in London in 1940, and at the Glasgow School of Art from 1941 to 1943. She relocated to Australia in 1951 with her new husband, Australian artist Grahame King, and they lived at Warrandyte in outer Melbourne.

King initially earned a living designing jewellery and later made occasional forays into collage and printmaking. She was originally a carver and much of her early work was made from wood, sandstone, marble and alabaster. In 1959 she acquired an arc welder and began making welded steel sculptures and assemblages, often with heavily textured surfaces, including Castle 1961 and Captive 1965 now in the Gallery’s collection. Later works, such as Planet 1976-77 and Bavardage II 1994, incorporated a more polished surface texture though she remained devoted to the use of steel.

In 1961, King founded the Centre Five group of sculptors, along with Vincas Jomantas, Julius Kane, Clifford Last, Norma Redpath and Teisutis Zikaras, with Lenton Parr joining soon after. The group aimed to bring contemporary sculpture to a wider audience, and were at the forefront of a change in taste among audiences and gallerists towards contemporary sculpture, particularly abstract sculpture, which was not widely accepted in Australia at that time..

Inge King died in April 2016 at the age of 100.

Mrs Inge King

Forward Surge
Inge Kings's best known sculpture is the monumental Forward Surge at the Melbourne Arts Centre. The sculpture was commissioned by the Victorian Arts Centre in 1974. Construction was completed in 1976, and the work was installed in its present position in 1981. It is made from 50mm mild steel and stands 5.2m high, 15.1m wide and 13.7m deep.see more images

Forward Surge is the major sculptural drawcard for the Arts Centre precinct and one of our most prominent and valued works of art. It has been listed on the National Trust Register since 1992, and is noted by the National Trust as King's "most monumental work of art, and probably most significant"
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Forward Surge
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1957, Herald fountain, maquette
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1957, Sisters
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1958, Sculptural form
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Ballet of the strangers 1959, (cast 1989)
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1966, Monitor
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1972, Sails, maquette
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Royal Australian Air Force Memorial

The Royal Australian Air Force Memorial, situated on Anzac Parade, Canberra, was King's first significant public commission, gained as the result of a competition. The memorial had to symbolise the aspirations and the achievements of the RAAF, as embodied in the Air Force motto: Per Ardua ad Astra (through adversity to the stars). It was installed in 1973. The structure consists of three stainless steel panels, reminiscent of aircraft wings, the tallest nearly 8 m high, which are separate but related to each other. In the centre is a bronze structure standing on a plinth. A plaque mounted on the plinth explains that the “three upsurging wing shapes in ground stainless steel represent endurance, strength and courage, while the bronze flight image embodies man's struggle to conquer the elements”

1974, Black sun
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1976-77, Great planet
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1978, Daruma
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1980-82, Sun Ribbon

This work was installed in 1980, on a small lawn outside the Union Building at the heart of the University of Melbourne. It is formed from 19mm steel, and consists of two upright steel circles, each 360 cm in diameter, and three folded metal planes; the total length is 6 m. It provides the students with a unique resting place among its massive unfurling bands and is the focal point of one of the university's busiest outdoor spaces, the Union Lawn.
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1985, Awakening
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1985, Blue and Yellow
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1985, Two Is a Crowd
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1986, Chariot
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1989, Silent gong
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1989-90, Fiesta (Maquette)
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1990, Gemini (Maquette II)
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1991, Dervish (Maquette II)
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1991, Island Sculpture
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1993, Grand Arch II
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1993, Singing Child
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1994, Bavardage II
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1994, Sheerwater at Southbank

This sculpture was commissioned by Esso Australia for a site outside its building on the south bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne. It was installed in 1995. The sculpture is built in polychrome steel.
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1997, Jester
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1998, Windspirit
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2004, Bagatelle [1st version]
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2008, Red_rings

This sculpture was commissioned in 2008 by ConnectEast as part of the EastLink collection. It is located at the junction of the EastLink Trail and the Dandenong Creek Trail, near the EastLink Motorway, Melbourne. It is made up of three steel rings, each 2.5 m in diameter and painted red.
It is intended that people can walk through the sculpture.
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Rings of Saturn

Rings of Saturn is located in the Sir Rupert Hamer Garden, in the grounds of the
Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne. Shortly after the dedication
of this work, in August 2006,
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