Women of Belfast
Frederick Edward McWilliam (Banbridge 1909 - 1992)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1972
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
572 x 254 mm; 775 mm (L)
Order this imageCollection
The Argory, County Armagh
NT 565210
Summary
Bronze sculpture, Women of Belfast by Frederick Edward McWilliam (1909-1992), signed lower right McW, 1972. One of five casts and the largest in the series of some twenty studies entitled Women of Belfast, begun in 1971 as a response to the escalation of violence in Northern Ireland at that time. In the sculptor's treatment of the figure he uses distortion as an expression of extreme emotion. A woman is flung back by the impact of an explosion. Both the force of the composition and the texture of the bronze indicate the agony of the subject, a symbol of all innocent victims of violence.
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist to J.R.S. Smyth, Worcester; purchased by the National Trust, 1992, with the help of a grant of £2,000 from the Art Fund (then called the National Art Collections Fund)
Marks and inscriptions
McW. 1/5 (signed lower right)
Makers and roles
Frederick Edward McWilliam (Banbridge 1909 - 1992), sculptor
Exhibition history
The Artist's Overcoat: McWilliam and his Work, F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, County Down, Northern Ireland , 2013