Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 19

Colin Webster Watson
Large Bronze Modernist Biomorphic Sculpture Abstract Bird Colin Webster Watson

About the Item

Colin Webster Watson (1926-2007). A patinated cast bronze sculpture of a stylized bird with a steel ring. Signed, numbered and dated (1985). With a Tallix foundry mark. Measures: H 30 1/2" x W 16" x D 18" Provenance: Collection of Dick Polich, Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. Colin Webster-Watson (1926, Palmerston North, New Zealand – 2007, Eastbourne) was a New Zealand artist, sculptor and poet. Webster-Watson (he hyphenated his name later in life) grew up in Palmerston North, where he attended Palmerston North Boys' High School. He left New Zealand for Europe, developing a great admiration for early Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. He studied Pablo Picasso paintings and was particularly interested in the way that artist eliminated unnecessary lines and forms to reveal only the essence of creation. While visiting Paris he discovered the work of nineteenth-century sculptor Rodin, whose spirituality and sensuality have been a major influence on the development of the New Zealander's work. At the age of twenty, he traveled to Japan with the Commonwealth Occupation Force. While in Japan, his army superiors deemed that he would be better employed as an entertainer than a soldier, and gave him the responsibility to organise concerts for the troops. In 1954, Webster-Watson moved to London to become a dancer and comedian at the Windmill Theatre. His milieu was theatre. He performed regularly with the Palmerston North Operatic Society and the Manawatu Repertory company. For a time, he also worked as a radio sports reporter in Wales. Following the death of his father in 1960, Webster-Watson suffered a breakdown and moved to Italy. It was while running an orphanage in Alberobello that he discovered his love of sculpture and soon after established a studio in Rome. Hie oeuvre includes biomorphic nude, animal and mythological bronze and marble sculpture. Through an acquaintance he met Bice (Beatrice), "one of Rome's leading sculptresses" and became her pupil. Colin's bronze creations and his skills at self-promotion brought buyers flocking to his exhibitions, including celebrities of the era: movie stars Debbie Reynolds, Carroll Baker and Gloria Swanson; author Harold Robbins (whose letter of endorsement Colin had framed); Morris West, Robert Ardrey, Harold Robbins and Henry Rothschild. His work also graced the collection of Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, Sarah Churchill, sometime actress and daughter of Winston Churchill, with whom he was said to have had a long romantic relationship. Webster-Watson married New York socialite, Jane Ewing, whom he married and led a sociable, flamboyant life with, in the historic, well-heeled village of Wainscott on Long Island. In 1990. Polich and Tallix produced significant sculptural works over many years. He produced fine art sculptures with artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, ERTE, Julian Schnabel, Richard Artschwager, Isamu Noguchi, and many others. He later moved to Palm Springs, California, where he lived until 2004 when he returned to New Zealand. Webster-Watson donated several works to Wellington including Tail of the Whale (Oriental Bay), Frenzy (Ōwhiro Bay), Prowling Cheetah (Wellington Zoo), Mountain of Dreams (Wellington Zoo), La Famiglia (Wellington Hospital). Colin returned to New Zealand in 2004, welcomed by family and old friends. Settling in Wellington's Eastbourne with his beloved Pekinese dog Andrew, he lived out his last few years travelling and entertaining guests with his legendary cooking and anecdotes. He'd also written hundreds of poems over the years; these would be condensed into a posthumous book, Natural Zoo, by his niece Anne Manchester and writer Mary McCallum. Colin donated his rose marble Prodigal Son sculpture to Palmerston North ("because I'm the prodigal son," he joked). It's installed in the city council's customer service centre, placed – as he wished – to be looked at closely, from all angles. Colin died in 2007.
  • Creator:
    Colin Webster Watson (1926 - 2007, New Zealander)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 30.5 in (77.47 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    minor wear, has nice character to it. please see photos.
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38212399372
More From This SellerView All
  • Cast Bronze Organic Husk Wall Mounted Abstract Textured Sculpture Seena Donneson
    By Seena Donneson
    Located in Surfside, FL
    This is an abstract Flora based hand made, cast sculpture done by Seena Donneson an acclaimed woman artist. A textured abstract bronze with deep, rich patina; The sculpture is signed with the artist initials and dated. It is unique. Seena Donneson (1924 - 2020) was an artist, sculptor and printmaker She studied at the Pratt Institute, NYC Pratt Graphic Art Center, NYC, with Michael Ponce de Leon and the Art Students League with Morris Kantor. Collections Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum of Modern Art, New York Brooklyn Museum Portland Art Museum Amon Carter Museum of American Art Select Individual Exhibitions Danville Museum of Art, Virginia; Galerie #836, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Greenville Museum of Art, North Carolina, 1987; Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. Group Exhibitions NY Upper East Side Outdoor Sculpture exhibition, 78; Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Florida; CAPS Travelling Exhibition; Ben Shahn Gallery, New Jersey; "The Collograph", NY State Council on the Arts/Pratt Institute. She was included in Group Shows Conceived and Curated by Dorothy Gillespie at the Women's Interart Center, New York, NY 1974. Artists included: Betty Parsons, Elsie Asher, Alice Baber, Minna Citron, Nancy Spero, Seena Donneson, Alice Neel, Natalie Edgar, Dorothy Gillespie, and Anita Steckel...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Cast Bronze Organic Husk Wall Mounted Abstract Textured Sculpture Seena Donneson
    By Seena Donneson
    Located in Surfside, FL
    This is an abstract Flora based hand made, cast sculpture done by Seena Donneson an acclaimed woman artist. A textured abstract bronze with deep, rich patina; The sculpture is signed...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Cast Bronze Organic Husk Wall Mounted Abstract Textured Sculpture Seena Donneson
    By Seena Donneson
    Located in Surfside, FL
    This is an abstract Flora based hand made, cast sculpture done by Seena Donneson an acclaimed woman artist. A textured abstract bronze with deep, rich patina; The sculpture is signed...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Cast Bronze Organic Husk Wall Mounted Abstract Textured Sculpture Seena Donneson
    By Seena Donneson
    Located in Surfside, FL
    This is an abstract Flora based hand made, cast sculpture done by Seena Donneson an acclaimed woman artist. A textured abstract bronze with deep, rich patina; The sculpture is signed with the artist initials and dated. It is unique. Seena Donneson (1924 - 2020) was an artist, sculptor and printmaker She studied at the Pratt Institute, NYC Pratt Graphic Art Center, NYC, with Michael Ponce de Leon and the Art Students League with Morris Kantor. Collections Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum of Modern Art, New York Brooklyn Museum Portland Art Museum Amon Carter Museum of American Art Select Individual Exhibitions Danville Museum of Art, Virginia; Galerie #836, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Greenville Museum of Art, North Carolina, 1987; Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. Group Exhibitions NY Upper East Side Outdoor Sculpture exhibition, 78; Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Florida; CAPS Travelling Exhibition; Ben Shahn Gallery, New Jersey; "The Collograph", NY State Council on the Arts/Pratt Institute. She was included in Group Shows Conceived and Curated by Dorothy Gillespie at the Women's Interart Center, New York, NY 1974. Artists included: Betty Parsons, Elsie Asher, Alice Baber, Minna Citron, Nancy Spero, Seena Donneson, Alice Neel, Natalie Edgar, Dorothy Gillespie, and Anita Steckel...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Israeli Bronze Sculpture Lovers Embrace Abstract Modernist Ein Hod Israel
    By Gedalia Ben Zvi
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Bronze sculpture signed in Hebrew and numbered from small edition of 6 BIOGRAPHY "I was born in Czechoslovakia in the year 1925, of traditional parents. I spent my youth partly in a little town on the Moravian border, and to a greater part in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Having been attracted by the arts from early childhood on, I studied functional art at a school in Bratislava, as long as this was still possible under the Nuremberg Laws which, at that time, were also in force in Slovakia. In 1942 I was taken to a concentration camp in Poland and at the beginning of 1945 I succeeded in escaping together with a friend of mine. Until our liberation by the Russians we were hiding in the forests of Northern Poland. At the end of the War I found myself wandering about Europe, together with thousands of survivors from the Holocaust, until, in 1948 I came to Israel via the Camps of Cyprus. From 1954 onwards I have been a permanent resident of the Artists Village at Ein-Hod, together with my family. In the course of that time I studied and worked in most of the creative techniques of the arts. During various periods of my life at Ein-Hod I taught painting and handicraft at different schools. In 1965 I gave up teaching and have since devoted myself exclusively to pure art." Gedalia Ben Zvi. Exhibitions 1962-1963 Design Exhibition, Tel Aviv 1964 Middle East Fair, Tel Aviv 1965 Ceramic Mural for school in Kiryat Gat a the Housing Exhibition in Tel Aviv 1966 Israel Fair and Exhibition, Paris One man show, Ein Hod International Symposium on “Ceramics in Architecture” Tel Aviv Ceramic Museum Museum or Modern Arts, Heavy Museum of Acre 1968 Painters Israeliens dans I’Art de Gobelins, Jerusalem Ein Hod Artists Village - Tenths Year Anniversary Exhibition 1963, Artists: Zvi Aldouby, Marcel Janco, Rudi Lehmann, Moshe Mokady, Aviva Margalit Mambush, Yohanan Simon, Dov Feigin, Ovadia Alkara, Mark Tochilkin...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Modern Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • Mexican Art Abstract Brutalist Biomorphic Bronze Sculpture Mathias Goeritz
    By Mathias Goeritz
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Mathias Goeritz (German Mexican, 1915-1990) Bronze sculpture Signed and numbered Dimensions: (approximate) Height: 10 inches, Width: 4 inches, Depth: 2 inches. This is a cast bronze sculpture in an amorphous figure shape, quite heavy. Reminiscent of the biomorphic sculpture of Hans Jean Arp. This came from an estate and bears his signature It is not dated. there is no accompanying documentation. it is priced accordingly. Werner Mathias Goeritz Brunner (Danzig, Germany, April 4th, 1915/ now Gdansk, Poland – Mexico City, Mexico; August 4th, 1990). Mathias Goeritz has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and at the Museo Experimental El Eco. Numerous works by the artist have been sold at auction, including 'MENSAJE' sold at Sotheby's New York 'Latin American Modern Art' in 2015 for $466,000. There have been Several articles about Mathias Goeritz, including 'LACMA remaps Latin America' written by Suzanne Muchnic for the Los Angeles Times. Painter, sculptor and Mexican architect associated with the trend of constructive abstraction. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin, but this only lasted a year. The concerns of the young student were aesthetic in nature so he he studied figurative drawing at the Berlin Charlottenburg School of Art. Some of his friends and colleagues were the sculptor Ernst Barlach, painter George Grosz and draughtsman Kaethe Kollwitz. Goeritz studied philosophy and history of art, discipline in which earned a doctorate. He travelled in France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Austria and Italy, among other countries. It is known that he left Germany to live in Tetuan, Morocco in 1941 and then Granada, Spain in 1945. In 1946 he had a large exhibition in the Sala Clan in Madrid under the pseudonym "Mago". Two years later, living in Santilla del Mar, Spain he was a founder of the Escuela de Altamira. The following year he married Marianne Gast, writer and his companion for more than fifteen years. In Spain followed his artistic work by important artists of the avant-garde. Of Jewish descent, he found refuge from the Second World War in Mexico where in 1949 he was invited by Ignacio Diaz Morales to be a part of the faculty of the School of Architecture at the Universidad de Jalisco. In 1953 he wrote the "Manifiesto de la Arquitectura Emocional" (The Emotional Architecture Manifesto), where he points out that only achieving true emotions from architecture can it then be considered an art form. In Mexico he entered controversy with the artistic stablishment of that country; in an open letter, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros described him as "an impostor without the most insignificant talent and preparation" to be an artist. Despite this, in 1957 he was elected director of visual design of the National School of architecture This same year he founded the Museo del Eco in Mexico City. In 1961 Goeritz participated at the Galería Antonio Souza in a group exhibition, Los hartos, for which he published another manifesto. Other participants included Jose Luis Cuevas and Pedro Friedeberg, with whom he was instrumental in establishing abstraction and other modern trends in Mexico.His work is included in the Gelman Collection of modern and contemporary Mexican art based in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Established by Jacques and Natasha Gelman in 1943 as a private collection. it includes many iconic works by major Mexican Modernists including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Leonora Carrington, Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo, Lola Alvarez...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

You May Also Like
  • ORIGAMI CRANES
    By Lyle London
    Located in Tempe, AZ
    This sculpture of a pair of Dancing Cranes by Lyle London explores a unique translation of the Japanese art of folded paper into a metal sculpture. Th...
    Category

    2010s Modern Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Stainless Steel

  • "On the Wings of an Eagle", Chester Fields, Bronze and Steel Sculpture, 54x40x24
    By Chester Fields
    Located in Dallas, TX
    "On the Wings of an Eagle by Chester Fields is one of his most popular sculptures. This is number 26 of 75 made. It is made with the following: Bronze Casting Deluxe Patina Gold Beak...
    Category

    1990s Realist Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze, Stainless Steel

  • Couple
    By Agustín Cárdenas
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    Infused with a crisp modernity and subtle sensuality, this bronze sculpture by Cuban-born artist Agustin Cárdenas is an exceptional example of late-2...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Marble, Bronze

  • Younger brother
    By Volodymyr Tsisaryk
    Located in Palm Beach, FL
    Bronze
    Category

    2010s Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

  • "Draped Figure" Sassafras & Bronze, Figurative Sculpture, 1982
    Located in Detroit, MI
    "Draped Figure" is a beautiful example of Tazian's ability to meld the smooth texture of wood and the hard texture of bronze into an exquisite object to view, hold or caress. The piece balances perfectly on its stone base and can be easily turned to enjoy from all angles. Like architects Eliel Saarinan and Albert Kahn and sculptor Corrado Parducci, Tazian is an immigrant creative who has found a home in the city, nurtured by its energy and sheltered by its community. He developed an early ambition to become an artist, even though he had very little exposure to the arts. ““The only person [who encouraged me] was my 5th grade English teacher, Olivia Balian,” he says. “She really opened the doors of art for me. She said, ‘Those students who are interested in art can stay behind after school and I will show you how to paint and draw.’ Somehow [that] changed my life– she gave me that spark.” Tazian came to the U.S. to study at St. Francis College in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art and a Master’s in Art Education, and then earned and MFA in sculpture from Wayne State University in Detroit. Kegham Tazian is an award-winning sculptor and painter. The Armenian-born artist has gained notoriety for the diversity of his work and the variety of media exemplified in his pieces. A blend of modernism, realism and abstraction are commonly depicted in his paintings and sculptures. His artwork has been represented in more than 40 solo exhibitions and more than 75 group exhibitions throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. His work adorns the entrances and halls of major corporations, universities and municipalities, including Siemens Corporation, Huntington Bank, Wayne State University and the city halls of Farmington and Farmington Hills...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Stone, Bronze

  • Morris Brose "Bronze Bull" Figurative Sculptural Abstract
    Located in Detroit, MI
    SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Bronze Bull" is an exquisite example of Morris Brose's abstract/figurative sculpture. No soft edges on this piece and no invitation to caress, the power, strength and beauty of the bronze are front and center and create awe. "Bronze Bull" is a free-standing piece signed on the base. Morris Brose, Polish/American was born in Wyszkow, Poland. He became a sculptor and instructor of sculpture at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Wayne State University and Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Cranbrook was designed by architect and faculty member, Eliel Saarinen who collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames on chair and furniture design. Numerous creative artists who are alumni of Cranbrook include: Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, Jack Lenor Larsen, Donald Lipski...
    Category

    Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Bronze

Recently Viewed

View All